Written Answers. - Roads Projects.
Richard Bruton
Question:
195
Mr. R. Bruton
asked the
Minister for Transport
the original costing of the road projects in the roads programme; the spending and the physical progress to date; the estimated overrun compared to the original costing of the works done to date; and the status of the remaining work on the project in respect of any anticipated delays caused by funding requirements or otherwise.
[24047/02]
The estimated cost of the national roads improvement programme in construction and planning in 1999 was €6.96 billion – early 1999 prices. The comparable estimated cost in January 2002 prices is €15.8 billion. The increased cost of the programme is due to: some underestimation in 1999 costs which were based on updating national road needs study data; construction cost inflation in the period 1999-2001: estimated at 15% per annum in 1999 and 2000, and 9.5% in 2001; exceptional items such as the upgrade of the N9, higher land costs on the south-eastern motorway, additional costs on the Dublin Port tunnel and the inclusion of some further projects in the programme; higher land acquisition costs, particularly in Dublin and adjacent to urban areas; increased cost of environmental measures including archaeological investigation, and the availability of more accurate and detailed estimates as projects progressed from preliminary to more detailed planning.
Investment in the programme over the period 2000-2002 will total approximately €2.62 billion. Over that period: 27 projects comprising 169 km of road, including nearly 50 km of motorway/dual carriageway standard, have been completed to date and opened to traffic; work is currently continuing on a further 19 projects comprising 154.5 km of road, including 121.5 km of motorway/dual carriageway standard; 12 of these are expected to be completed and open to traffic between now and end-2003; a further 22 projects involving 224 km of road have obtained the necessary statutory approvals; planning and design work has been advanced on approximately 65 other major projects; preferred route corridors have been identified for the five main interurban routes; a large PPP programme of 11 projects has been developed of which one is in construction and four are at an advanced tender stage.
Detailed information in relation to individual projects is a matter for the NRA which is responsible, in co-operation with local authorities, for the planning, design and implementation of individual road development projects.
The increase in the cost of the programme, the changed economic and budgetary circumstances combined with some delays due,inter alia, to land access difficulties in 2001 affecting planning have impacted on the pace of implementation of the programme. Some projects will therefore take longer to implement than originally planned.
Investment in the programme will be maintained at a high level. The 2003 provision, over €1 billion, will fund: construction on major projects throughout the country such as the Dublin Port tunnel, the south-eastern motorway, major schemes on the M1 and N11, M7 Kildare bypass and major schemes in Cork and Limerick; and planning and design on other projects.
It is hoped that with many projects reaching completion in 2003, and with the advance of PPP projects, that a number of schemes will be able to commence next year.
