The Limerick-Nenagh motorway will impose a "horrific" visual impact on residents in a densely populated part of the city unless the proposed route for its construction is changed, an oral hearing by An Bord Pleanála heard in Limerick yesterday.
Mr James J. Ryan, a resident of Rich Hill Woods, Lisnagry, declared that the confirmation that the new 37 km route would pass through Lisnagry was the realisation of the worst nightmare of residents.
"We are facing a doomsday situation where the motorway is coming through our back gardens," he said.
He said the National Roads Authority proposed to run the motorway roughly along the existing N7 to the back of Rich Hill Woods to the present N7-Newport Road junction, creating noise and light pollution.
Mr Ryan added that homes in the Rich Hill Woods area would be devalued if the €260 million motorway was built along the proposed route. An independent assessment by an estate agent on his own residence had stated that the property would be devalued by €150,000.
He said that two years ago, he and 16 other residents of Rich Hill Woods had sought commitments from Limerick County Council in relation to reducing the impact of the motorway on their locality, but it now seemed that none of those commitments would be honoured.
In reply to cross-examination by Mr Ryan, Mr Kerry O' Sullivan of RPS-MCOS, the consulting engineers on the project, confirmed that an initial plan to put a toll on the new motorway was not now going to proceed.
Mr Ryan said this would result in the road being even busier as motorists would not have to pay to use it.
Mr Brian Hodkinson, a spokesman for the N7 Residents Association, asserted that maximum noise-impact levels initially mooted for the motorway had been raised, but this was denied by Mr O' Sullivan. Mr O'Sullivan also denied suggestions by Mr Hodkinson that insufficient bore holes were undertaken as part of the process in determining the route of a section of the proposed motorway through the 300 hectare Annaholty Bog near Birdhill in Co Tipperary.
On the second day of the hearing yesterday, most observers present were predicting that the hearing would last well into next week.
There are approximately 150 objectors to the new route, many of whom want their concerns aired before the hearing.
Construction of the route is due to start in 2006.