The €1 billion project to widen the M50 motorway around Dublin has been delayed because of the Government's change of policy on tolling, The Irish Times has learned. The contracts for the massive project were on the point of being signed at the end of last month but were withdrawn at the last minute. Stephen Collins and Liam Reid report.
In the light of the Government's new policy on tolling, the National Roads Authority (NRA) was forced to withdraw the major portion of the project and launch a new tendering process.
Work was due to begin before the end of this year and was scheduled for completion by 2010. It will now be at least 2011 before it is finished.
The new tenders cover 25 kilometres of the M50 which is being widened from a two-lane to a three-lane motorway in each direction. The road will be built as part of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
Work on a smaller five-kilometre stretch, known as phase one, has just begun and will not be affected by the new tender procedures.
The much longer phase two could now be delayed for up to 18 months, according to informed sources.
A spokesman for the NRA yesterday denied that there would be a large delay caused by the new tendering procedure. He said it had been originally hoped that the second phase of construction would get under way by the end of this year and this might be delayed into early next year.
"A new tender process was required in order to reflect the changed scenario regarding the West Link toll facility," he said. The NRA placed an advertisement in the Official Journal of the EU on Wednesday seeking tenders for the project just a day before the formal launch of the Government's Infrastructural Bill which is designed to speed up work on major projects. According to the new tender notice: "The M50 PPP Contract is intended to comprise the design, construction, operation, maintenance and financing of the upgrade of approximately 25 km of the existing 2-lane carriage-way forming part of the M50 motorway to 3-lane standard, the provision of auxiliary lanes and the upgrade of a series of motorway interchange junctions."
The NRA spokesman said that the abandonment of the original tender process would not leave the State liable to pay any compensation as there had been no contracts signed or any financial undertakings given by the State.
The change in the process arose because of the new tolling policy announced by the Government at the end of January when a decision was taken to remove the controversial West Link toll barrier within the next three years. It will be replaced with a new barrier-free tolling system.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that the Government will decide on the new tolling arrangements, to be introduced in 2008.
The decision by the Government followed the collapse of talks between the NRA and the bridge's operator, National Toll Roads (NTR).
Under the plans, the State will buy out the right of NTR to operate a toll plaza on the road, in a compensation package that will be worth at least €500 million and up to €900 million to the company between 2008 and 2020.
From 2008, NTR will have no role in the operation or setting of tolls on the route and will instead receive either a lump sum or an annual payment, based on the amount of traffic using the bridge in 2007.
The West Link toll barrier will be removed by 2008, on completion of the first five-kilometre phase of the M50 upgrade between the Red Cow and M4 junctions on the route. The upgrade is aimed as easing congestion along the route, which will see freeflow junctions and an extra lane in each direction on the road.
The money from the new tolls will be used towards the upgrading of the M50 and the payment of compensation to NTR. An electronic tolling expert has been commissioned to advise on the type of system to be introduced.