Changing road designations to motorway from dual carriageway are being needlessly delayed, says Tim O'Brien
It would seem that red tape is holding up Government promises to redesignate the new high-quality dual carriageways as motorways, thereby protecting them from development and increasing the upper speed limit to 120km/h.
Since the enactment of the Roads Act 2007 this summer the Government has the power to act as promised and retrospectively designate the State's new high quality dual carriageways as motorways.
But motorists planning to enjoy the freedom of higher motorway speed limits would be well advised to hold their accelerator foot in check: Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey is currently not considering any high grade dual carriageways for redesignation. This is because, according to his department, the Minister has not been asked to do so.
The stance of the Minister would appear to be at odds with the urgency displayed by his predecessor Martin Cullen, who had announced plans to change the designation of motorways as far back as May 2006.
Confirming that the new Ashbourne bypass would be a 'national' road, the then minister said it would nevertheless have a speed limit of 120km/h instead of the 100km/h "default" speed limit, as set out in the Rules of the Road.
Challenged on the issue Mr Cullen announced a review of the designation of all the new high quality dual carriageways, with the aim of changing them from 'N' designation to 'M' designation.
The new high-quality dual carriageways are built to the same specification as motorways he said, they were among the State's newest and safest roads, and he hinted strongly that he believed they had only been designated N roads in the first place because the planning process for an M road was more complex.
Mr Cullen told the Seanad on March 7th this year that the change was important as anyone could create an access point to a national road, while access to a motorway was restricted to grade separated junctions.
The creation of a power that would allow a minister to change a designation from national road to motorway was, he said, essential if the National Roads Authority investment of billions of euro in the major inter-urban roads was to be protected from over-development and urban sprawl.
In the interim, however, the Republic would have to put up with yet another "Irish solution to an Irish problem": two different designations for new, high quality roads with different speed limits.
Both have a carriageway width of seven metres and a hard shoulder of 2.5 metres and can carry the same volumes of traffic.
The Department of Transport advises that road signs on national roads are green and therefore an upper "default" speed limit of 100km/h applies. Motorway sections would have blue road signs and an upper default limit of 120km/h.
The Rules of the Road and the Road Safety Authority website tell a similar story but this is clearly not the case at Ashbourne where the "default" limit has been raised as the road forlornly awaits its promised redesignation.
And there are other difficulties for the unsuspecting driver. The new road from Dublin to the Border was officially described as "motorway" in ministerial speeches at the opening of the final stretch from Dundalk to the Border earlier this month. But the green signs on the southern side of the Border depict an N designation - strongly implying a speed of only 100km/h.
A number of the new high-quality dual carriageways will actually be tolled roads despite not yet being motorway schemes.
Why has new Minister Noel Dempsey not acted to sort this out once and for all?
Or perhaps for that matter, is it the State's 400,000 provisional drivers who are behind it, as they too are not permitted to drive on motorways?
Certainly the National Roads Authority, with its billions of euro investment is a body which should be keen to see the designation made uniform. However, it said it can't designate roads, as that is a power reserved for the Minister.
But this week Mr Dempsey's office appeared to lay the blame squarely at the authority's door. A spokeswoman said the Minister must first get an application in from the NRA to upgrade any route "and so far none have been received".
In a written statement on the issue the Department added: "The key point here is that it is up to the NRA in the first instance to decide which routes, or parts of routes, would merit being reclassified from national to motorway status.
"This is in keeping with the respective roles of the NRA and the Minister under the original Roads Act 1993. This Act, which established the NRA, places responsibility for the detailed planning, design and implementation of the national roads programme with the NRA. The Minister for Transport has responsibility for overall policy and funding of the programme.
It seems the root of the delay is that someone needs to call into the NRA offices in Waterloo Road and ask them to ask the Minister.