Anger over NTR’s €1bn toll bridge ‘bonanza’

NATIONAL Toll Roads is set to earn over €1 billion in revenue from its contract to operate the Westlink toll bridge on the M50 in Dublin up to 2020, even though it cost the company only €38 million to construct.

Details of the projected future earnings from the Westlink tolls provoked criticism from several members of the Oireachtas Transport committee who learnt yesterday that NTR had already received over €300m since it first opened in 1990.

Labour Transport spokes-person Roisín Shortall said it was hard not to believe such a “sweetheart deal” represented a “bonanza” for NTR.

Delays caused by motorists queuing to pay at the Westlink toll bridge are seen as the major reason for regular gridlock on the M50 during peak-time traffic, despite the opening of a second bridge over the River Liffey last year.

It also emerged yesterday that a €750m project to upgrade the M50 from the existing two-lane motorway to three lanes in each direction is likely to reach full capacity almost immediately after its estimated opening in 2008.

The National Roads Authority warned yesterday that the introduction of new tolls on access roads to the M50 could be necessary to control traffic volumes which could reach 150,000 cars per day on the C-ring motorway by 2010.

The NRA also revealed that as a result of projected traffic growth over the next few years, it has begun an examination of the need for a new outer ring road that could link major urban centres in the greater Dublin area, including Drogheda, Navan and Naas, with a possible extension across the Wicklow Mountains to Wicklow or Arklow.

NRA chief executive Michael Tobin admitted that the Westlink toll plaza was “sub-optimal” and “inadequate” for dealing with the average 90,000 vehicles which use it on a daily basis. He acknowledged that such traffic levels were significantly in excess of NRA forecasts.

“The toll facility at Westlink is not satisfactory for the current traffic volumes,” said Mr Tobin.

He claimed that both the NRA and NTR believed the solution rested with the introduction of barrier-free tolling through the use of an electronic collection system.

Despite criticism about the original deal negotiated between NTR and Dublin County Council, Mr Tobin said the State had to date received €65m as its share of toll revenues, including an estimated €15.3m so far this year.

Mr Tobin also stressed that over 50% of all income from the Westlink bridges reverts to the Exchequer through a combination of toll revenue, taxes and rates.

“We would not be doing deals now which would allow the sort of returns achieved on Westlink,” said Mr Tobin. He added: “There was a genuine held conviction that it was a good deal at the time.”

It has been calculated that it would cost the Government up to €400m to try and buy out the NTR contract to operate the Westlink toll bridges.

The NRA confirmed that all future motorways and dual carriageways will be fitted with crash barriers irrespective of the width in the central median. Safety barriers are due to be installed on all existing motorways, except the M50, by mid-2005.