The following two capital projects have required my approval since I came to Office.
Dunkettle Interchange Upgrade Scheme
The application for planning consent was issued to An Bord Pléanála in July 2012. No external assessment of the Business Case or approval from my Department was required prior to submission of this application. The tender process for the construction of the project commenced in April 2017 and no assessment from my Department was required prior to the commencement of the tender process.
The business case supporting the request for Government approval to award the contract was submitted to my Department on July 5th2020. Following revision to take account of queries and comments, my Department confirmed on 27th August 2020 that the business case was conducted in accordance with the relevant guidelines as set out in the Public Spending Code and Common Appraisal Framework. I brought a Memorandum for Government to Cabinet on 13th October 2020 and received approval to proceed with the project on this date. Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) awarded the construction contract on 14th October 2020 and construction commenced on November 11th 2020.
M50 Variable Speed Limit Scheme
At a meeting in late 2015 between Minister Paschal Donohue and representatives of TII to discuss the operational performance of the M50, it was agreed to further investigate demand management measures in the areas of Intelligent Transport Systems, Information and Control namely installation of a Variable Speed Limit regime along with the necessary software and a dedicated control centre. The decision to progress the Variable Speed Limit scheme was reaffirmed by Minister Shane Ross after taking up his office and a subsequent presentation was made to the Minister on 14th May 2018. At that stage it was envisaged variable speed limits would “Go-Live” in late 2019 / early 2020. It is currently expected they will “Go-Live” in early – mid Summer.
The Final Business Case was submitted to my Department on 19th June 2020 for a compliance review. A review confirmed its compliance with the Public Spending Code (PSC) and the Common Appraisal Framework for Transport Projects and Programmes (CAF) and a letter confirming my approval for the project issued on 27th July 2020.
As TII had been running the procurement processes in parallel when this letter was received TII awarded the two main contracts for this project:
- ITS Deployment Contract to Dynniq UK Ltd on 29th July 2020, and
- Network Intelligence and Management System to Kapsch TrafficCom AG on 13th August 2020.
