The National Roads Authority (NRA) will today move to reassure Minister for Transport Martin Cullen that it will not oppose the development of motorway services such as restaurants and petrol stations.
Mr Cullen said yesterday that he would be asking the NRA to look at its policies as the organisation's annual report appeared to indicate it was opposed to service areas.
Mr Cullen said he believed "a policy of making lorries and cars leave the motorway to go back into towns for services doesn't make sense". The Minister added the point in bypassing towns had been to reduce levels of traffic and this would be negated by an NRA policy which forced vehicles back into towns for services.
However corporate director of the NRA Michael Egan said there appeared to be some confusion about the policy as the NRA was already co-operating with the private sector to provide service areas. Mr Egan said six such areas were already proposed for the 70-kilometre M1 motorway and more were proposed for other routes.
According to the NRA, the annual report made reference to a change in policy from not providing motorway services - a move which would see traffic diverted into the towns as the Minister feared - to proposing services in partnership with the private sector.
"We are proposing motorway services but we don't want them along the edge of the main motorway for safety reasons. So we are facilitating private-sector development around the interchanges and along slip roads," said Mr Egan.
In continental Europe motorway service areas had given rise to safety concerns and for this reason service areas such as Dublin's Liffey Valley were accessed via a slip road that had been paid for by the private sector.
It was not envisaged, however, that all service areas will be that far from the main route and Mr Egan said the size of the Liffey Valley Centre and associated traffic volumes had dictated the slip road. "In terms of our policy we have moved a long way from sending lorries back into towns, and we've moved that way for some time, " Mr Egan said.
