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TARA na Ri
Brian Guckian discusses the Meath MultiWay project, which was showcased recently in Kilmessan at the invitation of the Save Tara / Skryne Valley Campaign.
THE M3 motorway issue has dominated the most recent development of Meath. It has been put forward as the only solution to Meath’s transport problems, and its impact would be enormous if allowed to proceed. Little thought has gone into alternatives, and research completed in June this year showed the proposed scheme would generate at least six times its construction costs in consequential costs over 30 years – totalling € 5.6 billion – and would increase driving costs in the region by between 16% and 32% via tolls, higher fuel costs, emissions and pollution costs, congestion, loss of productive agricultural land, climate change and other related costs.
Furthermore, the proposed road would be anti-competitive – constricting choice by forcing people to drive and to pay tolls - and would take badly-needed funds from areas such as education, health and other services in the region. The need to meet the consequential costs of the motorway would also eventually push up indirect taxes, local authority charges and commercial rates even higher than they are now. As a complete system of interchanges, junctions and link roads, the proposed motorway would fragment the landscape, facilitating urban sprawl and inappropriate development. And this is even before one starts examining the severe effects on the heritage and cultural attributes of the area!
Unfortunately the outcome is that more roads mean more costs – on top of their construction over-runs highlighted recently in the Rip-Off Republic series - and with the recent major increases in fuel costs, continued provision of this negative and unbalanced infrastructure is now frankly untenable.
Some see re-routing the proposed motorway as a solution, but this does not eliminate the inherent costs the motorway would bring, and would cause an entirely new set of problems for those along whatever fall-back route is chosen. Others have called for re-opening the rail link to Navan to go with the motorway, but taken together, these projects would cost over € 1.2 billion, and not only is it questionable from a national perspective to spend such funds on a single corridor, but the viability of the rail link would be undermined by a parallel high-capacity motorway, and would in all likelihood need significant ongoing subsidy – in addition to the huge costs generated by the motorway.
Finally, as a double-toll road – built as such because of the needs of the PPP process, which also requires the road to be built to motorway standard, far in excess of the required capacity – the proposed M3 would be uneconomical for many to use, and the likely outcome is for the current N3 to remain just as heavily used as it is at present.
The proposed M3 is a prime example of the widely discredited “predict and provide” approach to traffic growth. This simply holds that more traffic requires more roads and bigger roads. However an obesity metaphor is useful here. If one starts putting on weight, and goes out and buys bigger sizes of clothes, the clothes (in this case roads) will not help one actually reduce weight, but will only accommodate one’s expanding girth! So a completely different approach is called for.
The secret is to in fact actively reduce traffic levels by providing a high-quality rail, coach and minibus network for passengers, and new railfreight technologies for business. These principles form the basis of the Meath MultiWay, which is an exciting new direction for transportation in Meath and which offers real choice to the user. And importantly, by reducing traffic significantly, the MultiWay facilitates a lower-capacity road design – known as “2 plus 1” - which can be used to upgrade the existing road, eliminating the need for a separate high-capacity motorway altogether.
The MultiWay concept is derived from the transport corridor framework outlined in the Department of the Environment’s National Spatial Strategy of 2002. The NSS’s defining attribute is a conscious rejection of a Dublin-centric approach, with strong ties between regional centres and an awareness of the need to develop efficient non-radial routes. This commendable structure has been used as the basis for the National Transportation Corridors (NTC) framework developed by the author.
NTCs reject the harmful “predict and provide” approach to traffic growth referred to earlier and instead actively spread the load over rail, coach and road within the defined corridors outlined in the NSS (of which Dublin – Navan – Kells is one). By using new techniques, such as integrated smartcard ticketing, high-quality public transport vehicle designs and high frequencies, road traffic volumes can be substantially reduced in the corridor, thus eliminating the need for separate high-capacity motorways.
The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated in its application to the Dublin – Navan – Kells corridor. Analysis of modal shift to high-quality public transport along the route (including expanded coach services, a feeder minibus network and re-opening the railway from Clonsilla to Navan and Kells) showed that up to two-thirds of the current N3 traffic could be removed, thereby eliminating the need for the proposed M3 and facilitating a step-change upgrade of the N3 to the NRA’s sustainable “2 plus 1” design, including bypasses of Dunshaughlin and Kells (as originally planned) and the existing Inner Bypass in Navan.
Furthermore, the total investment needed for the project – € 835 million – would come in at less than two-thirds of the cost of the M3 plus later public transport provision. Additionally, it was found that the MultiWay would generate estimated benefits of € 114 million per annum for the region, as opposed to the significant and ongoing consequential costs of a motorway, and as a by-product would also create new markets for “short-hop” car, van and minibus vehicles running on renewable fuels. It would also cost just one-third of the cost of the proposed motorway to use, when total usage costs are calculated.
The capital costs would be repaid within 7 years and the total project, including estimated operating costs, would go into surplus after 10 years – a great deal by any standards.
Ironically when the car is used for trips, motorists would also significantly benefit by getting a far superior road along the existing N3, with less traffic, thus making driving safer and less stressful.
But the MultiWay is not just to cater for commuters. Indeed, over time it would facilitate the growth of local work travel patterns and thus reduce the need for long-distance commuting. People could for example live in Dunshaughlin but work in Navan, or live in Kells and work in Ashbourne, and so on – the possibilities are endless. And because it does not in any way fragment the land, the MultiWay resists unsustainable developer-led planning and instead promotes responsible development strategies.
In summary, the MultiWay addresses the unsustainable nature of current large-scale road-building proposals in Meath, and the pressing need to reduce increasingly costly car and oil dependency. In so doing, it improves quality of life, protects our environment and secures Ireland’s future growth and competitiveness.
Brian Guckian is a researcher specialising in rail development and integrated transport. He has written over 30 technical papers and made numerous submissions to government, planning and transport bodies. Article © the author September 2005.
The author can be contacted at railprojects@eircom.net
The full Multiway proposal is available below. This includes the Weblinks to my press releases on the M3 and the EU Petition.
http://www.savetaravalley.com/meath_multiway.php
(Very useful synopsis I wrote in layman's terms)
http://www.savetaravalley.com/meath_multiway2.php
(Press Release which states MultiWay is for National use)
http://www.savetaravalley.com/eupetition.php
(About my Petition to the European Parliament on failures in the M3 planning process and on other roads)
http://sacredireland.org/multiway/
(Mulitway "brochure")
http://sacredireland.org/multiway/meathmultiway.pdf
(Full PDF of MultiWay document - requires free Acrobat Reader)
http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:PgzuMxSxVREJ:sacredireland.org/multiway/meathmultiway.pdf+meath+multiway&hl=en&gl=ie&ct=clnk&cd=3
(The MultiWay document in HTML format for people without free Acrobat Reader, but does seem to omit diagrams)
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