Authority faces bill as part of €244 million M50 upgrade

THE National Roads Authority will have to pick up the bill for a new section of Luas that will have to be built as part of a €244 million project to upgrade an 8km stretch of the M50.

Transport officials admitted this week that a major programme to expand the country’s busiest road to a six-lane motorway will also require a re-routing of the Luas across the busy Red Cow intersection.

The exact engineering solution on how best to accommodate the new section as part of a “spaghetti junction” to be constructed to eliminate traffic lights and roundabouts at the Red Cow has still to be decided.

However, both the NRA and Railway Procurement Agency believe that the best solution is to allow the Luas to be segregated from vehicular traffic.

Such a preference will require a new stretch of tramline to be constructed over the M50 as part of a major upgrading of the intersection. Under its current route, the Luas has to cross three separate roads at the Red Cow junction.

It is estimated that a new section of around 300m will have to be built on a new bridge over the M50 and Naas Road.

However, the RPA has stressed that it does not anticipate any disruption to Luas services during the major roadworks programme on the M50.

Meanwhile, the RPA has confirmed that its board this week agreed the heads of an agreement for a deal which will see a group of private companies and businessmen contribute around €40m towards the cost of extending the Luas red line to Saggart.

The RPA originally only intended to extend the line by 3.5km to Fortunestown in west Dublin, using a spur between the existing stops at Cookstown and Belgard.

However, it has decided to extend the planned line to a total of 4.2km as far as the village of Saggart due to its growing population and the strong backing of private investors.

Among those contributing to the project are the controversial businessman, Jim Mansfield, who owns the nearby Citywest Hotel and golf complex. He is providing €13m towards the cost of the project.

Other key investors are two property development companies, Davy Hickey Properties and Harcourt Developments who have offered to provide land and lay the track bed for the light railway.

Davy Hickey Properties was set up by leading financiers, David Shubotham and Kyran McLaughlin, both formerly of Davy Stockbrokers, while the former broadcaster, Mike Murphy is a director of Harcourt Developments.

An RPA spokesperson said yesterday that the finalisation of an agreement with the private investors represented “a very positive milestone” for the project.

It is estimated that the size of the contribution from the private investors will exceed 50% of the cost of the extension.

The RPA hopes that the planned extension to Saggart will open in 2009.