Village pays price as NRA admits not enough drivers using €300m toll road

THE National Roads Authority (NRA) has admitted that not enough motorists are using the €300 million Fermoy bypass, but maintains that this will change.

Angry residents in Watergrasshill have rejected this forecast, however, and the NRA has run into another problem over speed limits.

After the bypass was opened, the NRA changed the speed limit on the old N8 between Watergrasshill and Fermoy from 100km/h to 80km/h.

An NRA spokesman said yesterday that using the bypass, which has a speed limit of 120km/h, would make commuting and deliveries far quicker, especially as the speed limit on the old N8 had been reduced.

But he was unaware that county councillors intend to restore the N8 limit to 100km/h — which would make travelling on the tolled bypass far less attractive.

“The NRA would support an [80km/h] speed limit on the N8... but we can’t overrule the council,” the NRA spokesman said.

Gardaí confirmed that a large number of lorries are still travelling through Fermoy, and that traffic through Watergrasshill has increased noticeably since the toll road opened.

Many hauliers have decided that paying more than €5 each time, for the privilege of using the bypass, simply isn’t worth it. Car users, who pay €1.60 each way, have also boycotted the road in large numbers.

Unfortunately for the residents of Watergrasshill, the majority of those dodging the tolls, be they lorry or car drivers, are passing through their village.

The NRA has put up diversion signs, designed to keep motorists out of the narrow village centre, but that route involves crossing two flyovers. Some toll-dodgers are using it, but the majority are still using the quicker route to the N8 through the village.

Large numbers of cars and trucks are now passing in front of the local national school, which has 200-plus children.

Denis Dineen, chairman of a local action committee, said that since the bypass opened there had been a constant stream of traffic through Watergrasshill.

“There used to be about 4,000 vehicles a day coming through the village, but that has more than doubled. It may be around 10,000 a day now,” Mr Dineen said.

His organisation insist that the only way this can be reversed is if a roundabout is constructed north of Watergrasshill, and south of the toll booths, to allow toll dodging traffic onto the N8 without passing through the village.

Ironically, since the Watergrasshill bypass was opened three years ago, the village has experienced relative peace and quiet. Toll-dodgers using it as a rat run have now created a nightmare for locals.

The NRA says it will have figures, within two weeks, on the average daily number of vehicles paying tolls on the Fermoy bypass, but has conceded that large numbers of motorists are dodging the tolls. There is no doubt that people travelling to and from Dublin on Friday evenings have found the road of great benefit.

People travelling to Fermoy, however, won’t make much time on the road.

The Irish Examiner recently carried out a survey, on two consecutive nights, leaving Watergrasshill at 5.30pm.

It took 14 minutes and 14 seconds to reach the Church of Ireland in Fermoy, travelling on the new road via Moorepark. To the same point, via the old N8, it took 15 mins and 53 secs.