Tolls for 40 years on new M3

Commuters on the new M3 must console themselves with having to pay charges at two toll bridges on the motorway for the next 40 years. The toll bridges are located just south of Kells and at Clonee with €1.40 being charged at each toll booth. For a commuter working five days a week, that amounts to €28 a week or €1,316 a year. That doesn't take account if you also need to travel via the M50 toll bridge. That said, the National Roads Authority (NRA) points out that the combined charge is less than the amount currently charged on the Kinnegad/Kilcock section of the M4, while tolling charges here are 50% cheaper than continental Europe. The M3 motorway from Dublin to Whitegate, Virginia, is 90% complete and the NRA is cautiously optimistic that with a mild winter the road can be complete by springtime. NRA spokesman Sean O'Neill said that the composition of the overlay was such that it couldn't be laid in very cold weather. If the winter is severe, then the completion date will revert to September 2010. The M3 project is a public private partnership (PPP) deal and involves the construction of 100kms of road, which includes 60kms of main motorway route and 40kms of intersecting roadway, as well as several interchanges and overpasses. When open, the new road will reduce the travelling time from Cavan to Dublin by half. According to Mr. O'Neill, the construction cost of the M3 is €700 million, which is the largest construction project taking place in Europe at this time. The overall cost when one takes land acquisition into account is almost €1 billion. The bypassing of the Hill of Tara was one of the areas of contention for the project with ongoing protests about the routing of the motorway through the Skryne valley with many interest groups who saw it as "desecrating" the valley of the High Kings. However, the promoters of the project have always asserted that the new road is further away from Tara than the existing N3 and they have also recorded for posterity any archaeological discoveries along the route. The northern terminus of the M3 at Whitegate is marked by an interchange as it joins the N3 to Cavan. The proposal for a bypass of Virginia, which advocated a two plus one road, has been deferred pending plans for the upgrading of the Virginia/Cavan road to dual carriageway status. Is is now unclear as to the status of this proposal in the context of the McCarthy report. When the point was put to Sean O'Neill that there is only one toll bridge on the M1 at which a €1.90 charge applies, the NRA spokesman said that toll charges were determined by the amount of money the private investors put into a particular road. There was a greater proportion of the cost of the new M3 borne by private investment than was the case in respect of the M1, he suggested. The PPP agreement between the state and the private investors of the M3 provides for a 40-year lifespan of tolling on the M3. So commuters on the new road will have to live with this reality into the distant future unless the economy recovers and the government of the day might feel they have the money to buy out the tolling rights. That aside, the new M3 would not have been constructed without the substantial input of private investment. The new motorway makes Co. Cavan easily accessible to ports and airport thereby increasing the county's attractiveness in terms of inward investment.