Dail Committee to quiz NRA on whether pyrite was used to build M3

chewed

From the Meath Chronicle

http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2010/03/18/3995651-dail-committee-to-quiz-nra-on-whether-pyrite-was-used-to-build-m3/

The National Roads Authority (NRA) is to be questioned by an Oireachtas Committee on the possible presence in excessive quantities of the mineral pyrite in the construction of the M3 motorway.
Measth East Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee, his party's spokesman on road safety, said he welcomed the fact that the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport has invited the NRA to clarify its position regarding concerns that pyrite-infected materials might have been used in the building of the M3 from Clonee to north of Kells, which is due to open this summer.
Deputy McEntee said that, in the past week, he had written to both the Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Transport regarding his concerns. "I am glad that the NRA has accepted this inviation to speak before the committee on Wednesday 7th April. This is being done in the long-term interest of the M3," he said.
The Fine Gael Meath East TD said yesterday (Tuesday) that although some people were annoyed at him for raising the matter, he felt it was his duty to do so because of the concern he had that there might be pyrite in large quantities in materials used to build the motorway.
"It is my information that material used in the building of the motorway could have come from the same quarries which supplied material containing excessive quantities of pyrite. This led to horrendous problems among householders in the country and nobody wanted to take responsibility. The problem is being passed from one place to another," he says.
He said that, having dealt with the problem of the presence of pyrite in two homes in Kentstown, Navan, he knew how much suffering the families had been put through. Although the cases had now been settled, the whole affair had left a terrible mark on the people involved, he said. The mineral reacts with air and water, causing buildings to warp and crack if it has been used as infill material.
"I want to raise this problem now because we don't want to have to deal with it in 30 to 40 years' time. I am hoping that the Joint Oireachtas Committee will ask specific questions of the NRA as to their knowledge of whether there is pyrite used in the building or the M3 or not. It is a major concern and now is the time to clear it up for once and for all," he added.

Cookie_Monster

should this not be in infrastructure?

AlekSmart

I reckon Politics is by far the more appropriate place for this stuff,where it will sit and ferment with the rest of the shytt !!!

Carawaystick

Ins't the M3 a public private partnership where the private sector take *all* the risk in return for their share of the profit?
If they used pyrite then it should hit them, and have nothing to do with the nra....

Of course in this reality, *we* take all the risk and the private sector take all the profit....

SeanW

I'm not entirely familiar with pyrite, but from the way the man mentioned "dealing with the problem in 30-40 years time" it seems that if pyrite were used, the Motorway would fall apart as and when the construct reverted to the State (as PPP projects give the private builder a set amount of time, usually in decades, to collect tolls/fares of project users, after which time it reverts to public ownership).

If the contractor used pyrite, hopefully there's a penalty that can be applied.

L1011

The road has to be returned to the state needing no substantial maintaince for ten years from handback. The handback date is April 2037, so the road needs to be soild to April 2047.

If there's excessive pyrite there it'll cause a problem before then. If there is and its starting to degrade, expect the mid-term resurfacing works (they need to resurface the road once during the 30 years) to involve massive pavement and structure work too.