Jackson Way argues last M50 section not needed

JACKSON Way Properties have claimed it is not necessary to build the last section of the M50 motorway because upgraded existing roads would be adequate to take the volumes of traffic in the area.

Eamon Sweetman, roads engineer and consultant to Jackson Way, told an arbitration hearing yesterday that the South Eastern Motorway, under construction on lands bought compulsorily from the company at Carrickmines, in south Co Dublin, was not essential.

Mr Sweetman said an alternative route was available to take traffic off the existing motorway at Ballinteer, along the Leopardstown and Brewery Roads and on to the N11.

Dermot Flanagan SC, counsel for Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, which is fighting the company's 47 million compensation claim, dismissed the idea as "absurd" given traffic congestion in the area and the fact that the new section was expected to carry up to 140,000 vehicles a day.

Mr Flanagan is arguing that Jackson Way has exaggerated the value of the lands by emphasising their proximity to public transport and non-existent road links.

Jackson Way is arguing that if it were not for the motorway being routed through the lands, the 20 acres compulsorily purchased from them, and more than 80 surrounding acres, would have been rezoned from agricultural to residential use, increasing their value.

Mr Flanagan said yesterday that rezoning would have relied on access to the site and without the motorway, access was severely limited.