[Bog Butter]

The debate on this road scheme is begining to heat up. Go have a look at the Archaeology section under Science.

[GeneHunt]

The Irish Times - Wednesday, February 17, 2010
FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor

FORMER ATTORNEY general John Rogers SC, who lives in the Boyne valley, will be among the objectors to plans by Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority (NRA) to build a bypass of Slane 500 metres from the Brú na Bóinne archaeological complex.

Today is the last day for making submissions to An Bord Pleanála, which will adjudicate on the scheme under the 2006 Strategic Infrastructure Act.

Depending on the number of objections, the board may decide to hold an oral hearing.

The proposed route, running east of Slane, is being opposed by the newly formed Save Newgrange campaign, led by Vincent Salafia, who was prominent in the protracted struggle against the M3 motorway because of its proximity to the Hill of Tara.

Yesterday, Mr Salafia called on An Bord Pleanála to extend the deadline, arguing that the public notice was inadequate, that more time was needed by the public and that access to information on the project had been “unreasonably curtailed”.

He said Save Newgrange had lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission, alleging the public consultation process was “flawed” and calling on the commission to intervene so the deadline could be extended for 90 days.

The planned new section of the N2 is 3.5km long and would cross the river Boyne on a new bridge at a location 1.1km to the east of the existing Slane Bridge, which has been the scene of several traffic incidents involving heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).

The frequency and severity of these incidents have been reduced since 2002, when the county council introduced extra traffic signals and an overhead gantry on the steeper southbound approach to the bridge, to control HGVs.

It is estimated that some 1,600 HGVs pass through the centre of Slane village every day. The volume of such traffic on the N2 led local residents to campaign for a ban on HGVs in Slane, and this was adopted by the county council in April 2009.

The resolution was not implemented because of fears that it “could have serious consequences for Meath County Council in terms of possible legal exposure, delivery delays and business frustration”, according to director of services Eugene Cummins.

The environmental impact statement (EIS) on the bypass proposal says it would remove through-traffic from the existing N2 through Slane, improving the village’s environment as well as giving an “improved level of service” on the route.

However, it concedes that the new stretch of the N2 route would be “just over 500 metres from the Unesco World Heritage Site of Brú na Bóinne, comprising the three main prehistoric sites [of] Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth”, on the north bank of the Boyne.

“The assessment identified 44 archaeological and cultural heritage constraints within 500m of the route. Of these, five will be impacted directly, two will be impacted indirectly and 34 will have no predicted impact,” according to the EIS.

For the 10 sites that would be affected, the potential impact is rated as “potentially significant” for three, “moderate” for two, “slight” for another two and “no predicted impact” for one.

The remaining two are “areas of undetermined archaeological potential”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...264628445.html

[Irish and Proud]

Originally Posted by GeneHunt

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...264628445.html

...have these people nothing better to do???

...the country is a mess, while certain individuals have the luxury of obstructing important infrastructural projects which might help Ireland to return to prosperity.

How come these people have such time and money on their hands?

Roll on the Slane Bypass, New Ross Bypass, Galway Outer Ring etc!!!

Regards!

[munchkin_utd]

Originally Posted by Irish and Proud

...have these people nothing better to do???

...the country is a mess, while certain individuals have the luxury of obstructing important infrastructural projects which might help Ireland to return to prosperity.

How come these people have such time and money on their hands?

Roll on the Slane Bypass, New Ross Bypass, Galway Outer Ring etc!!!

Regards!

Retired people have loads of time on their hands!!

In this instance though I think the interference is almost allowable as theres more important projects that need financing than this.
You could easily argue that the N2 south of Ardee is no longer a proper national primary route seeing as the majority of cars take the Motorway via Drogheda.

If trucks are too tight to pay the toll (essentially the reasoning for the Slane project), it should not mean that they get dual carraigeway around Slane to allow them to get to Dublin for free rather than the perfectly good N1.

Will they build a free bypass of Dunshaughlin or Kells too when trucks choose to avoid paying the toll on the M3 and use the "old road"?
Sure maybe they should build a free bypass too of Fermoy so trucks can avoid the toll on the M8!!

[Idbatterim]

The road should be built asap! people quality of life, & actual life or death comes a hell of alot higher on the priority list than whatever the bloody hell these protesters are protesting over. Im sure the council knew the controversy this project would create before planning the route and have done their best to select the best route.

[munchkin_utd]

If the trucks are such a danger in Slane then simply ban them.
Straight forward solution to a straight forward problem.

Seriously.
Trucks have no need to be in Slane village.
They would not be put out to make a 2 miles detour onto the M1 at Ardee and follow the M1 straight to the Tunnel and the M50.

In the medium term this could well the only solution anyhow.
This issue will drag through the courts for god knows how long, so if you want a solution to trucks being a danger in Slane in the next 5 or 10 years then the only solution will be to remove the problem, reroute the trucks.

[dubhthach]

I love the way the press are still saying that the proposed road is within 500 metres of the actual monuments. It's 500 metres from the buffer zone, but then that doesn't sound as sensational.

[Zoney]

Yes, if anyone here is trying to clarify that in the media by the way (e.g. letters or on air) rather than draw attention to that technicality (many will gloss over such boring details) just instead baldly state how far away it is from Newgrange itself. Whatever amount of kilometers that is (round up - say "almost X km"). Say people can go check it on a map if they want and just rubbish the 500 m figure as incorrect. It would be technically incorrect if someone was actually saying Newgrange itself would be 500 m away rather than just implying or referring to the boundary - of course people aren't saying that, but it's justifiable to use the same tactics in my opinion in countering the media nonsense.

[Chris_5339762]

The cynic inside me says that they purposefully picked a stupid route like this to cause legal problems and delay the project. They dont want to bypass Slane as it would be too tempting to bypass the M1 toll.

[Roryhy]

I was getting a bit confused with the different maps i was looking at regarding this route and its distance from buffer zones etc.. What i decided to do was get a pic from google maps and impose the information from different maps to make one that shows everything.
The maps and drawings referenced are-
http://www.meath.ie/LocalAuthorities...e,39840,en.pdf
http://www.meath.ie/LocalAuthorities...e,39839,en.pdf
http://www.meath.ie/LocalAuthorities...e,39838,en.pdf
http://www.meath.ie/LocalAuthorities...e,39837,en.pdf
http://www.meath.ie/LocalAuthorities...e,39197,en.pdf
http://www.meath.ie/LocalAuthorities...le,6798,en.jpg
And here it is-

What i found is-
1. the road surface itself will be slightly over 700m from the buffer zone.
2. the road surface itself will 2.55km from Knowth at its nearest point.
3. the closest point to Newgrange will be approx 4km.

[Amtmann]

Big opinion piece in the Irish Times today. The entire motorway programme has been criticised.

Frank McDonald

The National Roads Authority is bent on pursuing a plan that would visually compromise the setting of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth

THIRTEEN YEARS ago, when I went to Japan for the first time to cover the Kyoto climate change summit, someone who knows the country well told me that it was largely run for the benefit of its concrete industry. “After building all the motorways and high-speed rail lines, they got into concreting river banks and even beaches,” he said.

For the past decade or more, it seems that Ireland has been run for the benefit of CRH plc, Siac, Seán Quinn, the asphalt men and quarry owners and a legion of consultant engineers, archaeologists and greedy farmers. They’ve all done very well from the roll-out of motorways across the length and breadth of the country.

Nobody can say for sure how much all of this has cost, but it is certain that well over €20 billion has been spent so far. Although Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey recently announced that the allocation for national roads this year was being cut by €325 million, the National Roads Authority will still have more than €1 billion to spend.

The authority’s programme is so overblown that when the controversial M3 is finally completed this year, Meath alone (coincidentally, Dempsey’s own constituency) will end up being traversed by four motorways – the M1, the M2, the M3 and the M4. Three of these routes pass remarkably close to each other – only 20km apart in some places.

Any Martian could see that we lost the run of ourselves in building all of these roads fanning out from Dublin.

Instead of “shadowing” the existing routes we inherited, a bit of lateral thinking would surely have led us to build an entirely different motorway network, with (for example) Waterford or Limerick being served on the way to Cork.

If the roads authority carries on unchecked, we will end up with nearly 1,000km of motorways by 2015. And that doesn’t even include an eastern bypass for Dublin – to enclose the city in a “motorway box” – and an outer ring road from Drogheda right around to Naas, which would function in effect as a bypass for the now engorged M50.

The latest bypass proposal is for the village of Slane, Co Meath. Everyone who has attended rock concerts over the years at Slane Castle will be familiar with the old bridge over the river Boyne; it is set at right-angles to the N2, and this hazard is aggravated by the fact that southbound traffic approaches it on a steep incline from the village.

As noted by an environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared for the authority and Meath County Council, “there have been numerous traffic accidents, some fatal, over the years – typically when heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) descend on the steep hill and collide with other traffic or crash through the bridge parapet”. In short, it’s dangerous.

The proposed 3.5km bypass would run east of Slane; opting for a westerly route would have brought it through the estate of the Marquis of Mountcharles. As a result, the EIS concedes, the planned dual-carriageway, with a new bridge over the Boyne, would pass just over 500 metres from the Unesco World Heritage Site of Brú na Bóinne.

This is at the root of growing opposition to the scheme. Having given a right royal slap in the face to Tara with the M3, despite widespread protests, the authority is now bent on pursuing a plan that would visually compromise the setting of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, the three main prehistoric sites of the Brú na Bóinne archaeological complex.

The EIS identifies five archaeological sites along the route that “will be impacted directly”, as well as a further three “areas of undetermined archaeological potential” and two other sites that “will be impacted indirectly”. In cold technical language, we are told that the predicted impacts range from “slight” or “moderate” to “potentially significant”.

On the other hand, the EIS says, “it should be noted that the N2 Slane bypass would have a positive impact in re-routing heavy traffic from Slane Bridge and Slane Village”. This would bring relief to its residents, who currently endure some 1,600 HGVs trundling through the village on the N2 each day, according to Meath County Council.

That’s why the council adopted a resolution to ban HGVs travelling north-south through Slane on April 6th, 2009.

The ban has not been implemented, ostensibly because of fears that it “could have serious consequences [for the council] in terms of possible legal exposure, delivery delays and business frustration”, an official said.

Could it be that the adoption of such a straightforward solution, forcing truck drivers to use the M1 instead, might have got in the way of a much more expensive and potentially destructive bypass plan? Certainly, many of the objectors will be arguing for the minimalist approach at an oral hearing by An Bord Pleanála – if there is one.

The appeals board has a history of rubber-stamping major road schemes. Only one, the proposed 1km “inner relief route” for Athy, Co Kildare, was flatly turned down; it “would fail both as a street and as a relief road because it would continue to bring traffic, including heavy commercial vehicles, through the town centre”, the board said.

The abortive proposal to ban HGVs using the N2 in Slane is surely a valid alternative to the new dual-carriageway planned by the roads authority and its engineering consultants, Roughan O’Donovan.

By refusing permission for this scheme, An Bord Pleanála would be laying down a useful marker against numerous others even now being hatched.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...264713512.html

This will be even worse than Tara, methinks. Every solstice worshiper, alternative type and crusty from Warsaw to Washington state will bivouac outside Slane, bent on impeding construction.

[Irish and Proud]

Originally Posted by munchkin_utd

Retired people have loads of time on their hands!!

In this instance though I think the interference is almost allowable as theres more important projects that need financing than this.
You could easily argue that the N2 south of Ardee is no longer a proper national primary route seeing as the majority of cars take the Motorway via Drogheda.

If trucks are too tight to pay the toll (essentially the reasoning for the Slane project), it should not mean that they get dual carraigeway around Slane to allow them to get to Dublin for free rather than the perfectly good N1.

Will they build a free bypass of Dunshaughlin or Kells too when trucks choose to avoid paying the toll on the M3 and use the "old road"?
Sure maybe they should build a free bypass too of Fermoy so trucks can avoid the toll on the M8!!

...but it's just the 3.5km around Slane I'm talking about - even if it's just an S2 job, Slane needs a bypass - even if the road becomes the R135. The current Boyne Crossing is just too dangerous! It's purely a safety issue!

Regards!

[Irish and Proud]

Originally Posted by Furet

Big opinion piece in the Irish Times today. The entire motorway programme has been criticised.


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...264713512.html

This will be even worse than Tara, methinks. Every solstice worshiper, alternative type and crusty from Warsaw to Washington state will bivouac outside Slane, bent on impeding construction.

Frank Mc Donald!!!!

What else do you expect from a long known anti-car fanatic!!!

If he had his way, all cars would be banned in this country!!!

As for fanatics coming in from abroad - we should treat them in exactly they way we treated the English hooligans at Lansdowne Road in 1994 - Garda Dogs Units etc!

Regards!

[marmurr1916]

Just sent this email to Frank McDonald.

Dear Mr McDonald,

According to your article, 'the planned [N2] dual-carriageway, with a new bridge over the Boyne, would pass just over 500 metres from the Unesco World Heritage Site of Brú na Bóinne'.

This is a distortion.

The proposed bypass would pass 500 metres to the east of the eastern edge of the buffer zone around the Brú na Bóinne site.

The road itself would be about 4km from the Newgrange site and over 2.5 km from Knowth.

This issue is clearly going to cause much controversy in the near future.

It would be helpful if reporting was accurate and undistorted.

Yours,

[crushproof]

While I do somewhat agree with the ridiculous approach to building so many motorways and the destruction of our heritage I still believe it's a matter of urgency that some sort of Slane by pass is built. It should be obvious to everyone that the Boyne needs a new crossed as the current bridge is wholly unadequate even for local traffic, never mind HGVs.

A simple two lane bypass on the route planned will do the job, no need whatsoever for a dual carriageway.