Bypass Ireland: Fermoy 'the bigger sufferer' because of toll booth that came with its bypass

While the Fermoy bypass revived the town for some time, it was short-lived, writes Neil Michael

People in Fermoy are seeing levels of congestion returning to the point at which they are, once again, having a negative impact on the town. Picture: Denis Minihane.

The biggest problem with the Fermoy bypass is not the bypass. It is, say people in the town, the tolls that go with it.

They are seeing levels of congestion returning to the point at which they are, once again, having a negative impact on the town. The bypass may have helped lead to a revival in the town, but now there are calls for better access to the M8 or the construction of a relief road at the east end of the town.

“One of the biggest problems in the town is not the bypass, because the bypass was a great idea for the town,” says Cork County Council councillor Noel McCarthy. “Unfortunately, Fermoy suffers because of tolls on the motorway.

"People who don’t want to pay the toll have to go through Fermoy, and that includes what the bypass was supposed to discourage in the first place - the drivers of heavy goods vehicles."

Drivers heading towards Dublin from Cork and who want to avoid the toll have to get off at Watergrasshill Junction 17 and travel up the R639 through Kilshannig and Rathcormac.

They then travel under Junction 15, where there is a toll booth, and on into Fermoy and keep going along the R639 over the River Blackwater via the Thomas Kent Bridge and then up to Junction 14 at Moorepark to re-enter the M8. 

Drivers heading to Cork from Dublin just repeat the same steps but in the opposite direction. The two entry points are the only way to get on the M8 from Fermoy.

“That these people do not realise that to save on the toll, they are using more diesel or petrol and taking up more time is beyond me,” Mr McCarthy said.

“There are so many disadvantages for doing this, but they still do it. I firmly believe that half the traffic going through Fermoy has no business or connection to Fermoy whatsoever.

“I think they are mostly coming through to avoid the toll. I see it every day of the week. The congestion going through Fermoy is unbelievable.” 

He concedes that the toll is not the only driver, there is also the national route, the N72, for people who are travelling across areas between Killarney, Co. Kerry, at one end and Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, at the other.

He adds: “This is my personal opinion, but the toll has really become an obstacle for people living in Fermoy because of the traffic it is generating through the town.” He does believe the town has benefitted from the bypass, especially businesses close to the motorway, like the town’s Amber Station, where trucks come off and stay overnight.

Early morning traffic on Patrick Street in Fermoy. Cork County Council councillor Noel McCarthy believes most traffic is "mostly coming through to avoid the toll". Picture: Dan Linehan

But he believes the lack of an on-off, the M8 at the east of the town is a “huge disadvantage”.

He now believes there should be a relief road built involving the Mill Road, off the N72 that passes through the town, down to the Thomas Kent Bridge and new traffic lights installed to control traffic.

When the then-Transport Minister Martin Cullen travelled to Cork on October 2, 2006, to officially open the M8 Rathcormac/Fermoy bypass, the heading on the press release accompanying his visit read: “One of the country's worst bottlenecks removed . . ."

He was in an ebullient mood, trumpeting the fact that not only was the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project completed eight months ahead of schedule but that the bypass would remove 17,000 vehicles every day away from Fermoy town centre.

Mr Cullen said the new 18km bypass would be of great benefit to people and businesses in Rathcormac and Fermoy and surrounding areas.

“The significant reduction of through traffic in both towns will also have a beneficial impact on the quality of life for many people, who will be able to go about their daily business in a more efficient way,” he said.

“Improved access will encourage industrial, tourist and commercial activity in the locality, and the improvement of journey times between Cork and Dublin will have positive implications for the overall regional development."

But it wasn’t long after the bypass opened that concerns raised before it opened re-emerged.

Chief among them was the lack of an access route from Fermoy to get on or off the motorway that didn’t pass through a toll booth.

And this then had the knock-on effect of forcing people to go through Watergrasshill and Rathcormac, or back into Fermoy if they wanted to avoid paying the toll. A new form of congestion has started to build up at the east of the town, from the area on the N72 from Fermoy Community Hospital, through to where stores such as Lidl are located and the town hall.

Traffic on Pearse Square in the centre of Fermoy. The lack of an access route from Fermoy to get on or off the motorway that didn’t pass through a toll booth is one contributing factor to the increased traffic in the town. Picture: Dan Linehan

Last December, Tesco lodged plans for a supermarket on the old Barry’s Timber Yard site near Fermoy Town Hall, off the N72 Courthouse Road end of the town.

Submissions on these plans have since raised concerns about the impact that extra traffic heading to Tesco will have on the town.

In 2014, the Fermoy Enterprise Board raised the issue in a debate about the County Development Plan (CDP), requesting that “the provision to provide a third access point to the M8” be included in the CDP and that the National Roads Authority (NRA) be “pursued vigorously to make financial provision to put this in place”.

Mr McCarthy is loath to criticise any politicians who oversaw the bypass for not getting this third access point, as he believes they may have just not foreseen the need for it that now exists.

“They were delighted to get the toll,” he said.

“Maybe that's the only way they could fund the road but Fermoy was - and now is - the bigger sufferer because of that.” Fellow councillor Frank O’Flynn is in little doubt about the benefits of the bypass.

“It was a gamechanger and we are lucky to have it,” he said.

“It gave the town back to the people.

“There was a lot of dust and fumes and one or two-mile queues.

“That is not the situation now, although - yes - we do still have large lorries going through the town that should not be there.” Like Mr McCarthy, he recognizes that the lack of a third access point to the M8 is an issue.

He says he does not miss the pre-bypass “dust, dirt and long waits”.

He said: “Fermoy was a no-go area. People living outside Fermoy were shopping in other towns like Midleton and Mallow. Since the bypass people have come back into Fermoy and they are staying local and shopping local and supporting local businesses.

Cllr Frank O'Flynn at Kent Bridge in Fermoy which, according to him, is lucky to have the bypass. Picture: Dan Linehan

“The bypass has given them that opportunity.” Family butcher Barry Fitzgerald, of Fitzgerald’s Butchers on Pearse Square, in Fermoy, admits his family’s business has done well out of the bypass, but sees other issues now affecting the town.

“People weren't coming into town to shop because they couldn't get in,” he said.

“They are now and a lot of businesses, including our own, have benefited.

“But a proportion of motorists still don’t want to pay the toll.

“That said, I think a lot more motorists recently have discovered rightly that the cost of diesel going through Fermoy, the wear and tear, the delays sitting in traffic, that it doesn't pay to go through the town for the sake of saving a few euro on a toll.” 

Barry Fitzgerald: "I think a lot more motorists recently have discovered...that it doesn't pay to go through the town for the sake of saving a few euro on a toll.” Picture: Dan Linehan

Setting the M8 and its toll-dodgers aside, it is worth bearing in mind the population growth experienced by Fermoy.

In 2006, the year the bypass opened, the town had a population of 5,873. This increased to 6,489 by 2011 and the population is on course to be just shy of around 7,590 by the end of the year.

The town and its hinterland are expanding and that in itself - helped by the bypass and other factors - must play a role in increasing traffic and congestion in the town. But it is clear the question over the provision of a third access point to the M8 bugs people in the town.

Pharmacist Michael Lyons, and chair of the Fermoy Forum, wants the issue of a third access point put back on the table. Such proposals could ease the new wave of congestion in the town, he says.

He said: “I think it needs to happen because it's not attractive to travel into Fermoy unfortunately anymore.

“You always welcome a busy town, but it's not busy if it's (just) people avoiding the toll and (who) have no intention of stopping in Fermoy.

“That's no good to us.” His biggest concern is that the growing congestion in the town makes it “unattractive” to potential customers who are not going to want to have to face a 40-minute traffic jam through the town.

The town desperately needs, he believes, a totally revamped traffic management system.

“What's in place at the moment needs to be reviewed,” he said.

Michael Lyons: “You always welcome a busy town, but it's not busy if it's (just) people avoiding the toll and (who) have no intention of stopping in Fermoy." Picture: Denis Minihane.

“And that’s putting it in a nice way. Do they just put a template and just use what they use in Mallow and other towns for Fermoy?

“Fermoy is unique. Having a toll road and having that bypass, having the parking issues . . . is it the number of parking spots that we have or is it just access to the parking?

“It really needs to be thought out because the current situation isn't working.”