M21 - Limerick to Rathkeale/Foynes [advance works to commence shortly]

prunudo

Should be thrown out of court on the first day.

lordleitrim

I wonder how long such a High Court case can take or wait to be scheduled? Are we talking months or years?

MICKEYG

I wondered this too.

If the court case fails who picks up the costs for the delay?

Chris_5339762

I don't know the answer to this, but both appear to me to be tenuous, so will likely be thrown out, but the second one would probably be appealed to the Supreme Court, who won't be interested.

My own (PURELY my own) estimated timeline for all of this - two years.

Hibernicis

Here are details of the three Judicial Review cases relating to the M21:

2022/901 JR - https://www.csol.ie/ccms/web/high-court-search/case-details/2022/901/JR

Bryan Murphy of Clonshire Stud, Gortnagrour, Adare, a stud farm owner, represented by William Fry Solicitors

Apparent basis*: The proposed road will traverse the 90 acre stud, leading to the total destruction of the business. 

2022/903 JR - https://www.csol.ie/ccms/web/high-court-search/case-details/2022/903/JR

Paul Madden, of Blossom Hill, Rathkeale, a Dairy Farmer, represented by O’Connell & Clarke Solicitors

Apparent basis*: Impact on viability of his dairy and dry stock farming operation, seeking declaration that ABP’s decision was irrational, disproportionate and contrary to articles of the Constitution 

2022/904 JR - https://www.csol.ie/ccms/web/high-court-search/case-details/2022/904/JR

Ian Gilvarry, of Clonshirebeg, Adare, a cybersecurity professional, represented by O’Connell & Clarke Solicitors

Apparent basis*: alleges that the board acted beyond its powers by deciding on the planning application without considering the expert scientific report he submitted ahead of an oral hearing on the scheme

William Fry are obviously heavy hitters. O’Connell & Clarke Solicitors style themselves as “The Environmental & Planning Litigation Firm” (in big bold letters on their homepage) and are the firm that unsuccessfully represented Harrington’s fusiliers in their failed bid to halt the M28.

Additionally, both Madden and Gilvarry allege that there has been a failure to properly transpose into Irish law an EU directive concerning natural habitats. This is due to an alleged failure to establish the necessary conservation measures and/or conservation objectives in the Curraghcase Woods, a special area of conservation. They take issue with the board’s assessment of the development’s potential effects on wetland habitat, including the rare Desmoulin’s whorl snail.

The latter (failure to properly transpose an EU Directive into Irish Law) is a claim that O’Connell & Clarke Solicitors also threw into the mix in the M28 case. This is colloquially known as “going all the way to Europe if necessary”, and gets thrown in in the hope that it would open an additional avenue of appeal to the Court of Justice of the EU if the Judicial Review and any subsequent appeals to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court fail. The Superior courts, who effectively control access to the ECJ, thought otherwise in the M28 case and it went nowhere near Europe despite the bluster.  

*None of the court documentation is available online. However I have attempted to summarise the apparent basis of the cases from the following newspaper articles:

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2023/01/17/court-challenges-brought-against-450m-limerick-road-project/

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-41050505.html

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/new-motorway-will-destroy-us-says-stud-farm-owner-who-sells-racehorses-to-british-royal-family-40306539.html

Hibernicis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120122023#Comment_120122023

It's a bit like asking how long does it take to build a house. or a road. Anything is possible.

With a fair wind the JR could be complete by the end of this year or thereabouts. Or, if the proceedings are complex, the judge is busy, other intervening variables etc. etc. it could run longer. At the outside 2 years, but I'd say that that is unlikely in this case. From what (little) we know it looks straight forward enough.

After that, it could be taken to the Court of Appeal and/or the Supreme Court. Which could add a lot more to the timeline.

Hibernicis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120122070#Comment_120122070

If you mean the increased costs resulting from construction starting in 20xx instead of 2023/2024/2025 (as a result of construction inflation) then that will be borne entirely by the exchequer/eu.

If you are talking about the legal costs, there is no definitive answer. Generally in Law, costs follow the event (in very simple terms the looser pays). However some planning related appeals fall under a provision of the Aarhus Convention which seeks to ensure that the high costs attached to legal action do not serve to prevent individuals or groups taking action where environmental issues arise. In other words the convention seeks to ensure access to justice in relation to environmental matters. What is/isn't covered by this is much debated (the Supreme Court ruled on one case relating to this only a few weeks ago, and overturned a prior ruling by the Court of Appeal, which in turn overturned the High Court decision). But is does explain this constant appearance of snails, dragonflies, rare pink flowers and what not, which get lumped into the JR cases and appeals thereby opening the gate to plaintiff not having to pay the defendant's (ABP, State etc) costs. I'd emphasise that there is no certainty, but making it "an environmental" case does open up the possibility of the person making the appeal ducking the other side's costs if they are unsuccessful.

Aontachtoir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120122023#Comment_120122023

The M28 got planning approval from ABP in June 2018, and the judicial review process ended in March 2021. Give it the bones of three years, and be pleasantly surprised if it is shorter.

A quick reminder at this stage that engineers were first engaged to begin the design process for this road in 2014. Our planning system is utterly broken.

MICKEYG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120123402#Comment_120123402

Agreed. Crazy that a project of this scale can be held up for so long.

I think once PP is given, any JR should be immediate. This means resources but the cost of that must be exponentially cheaper than the delays

Hibernicis

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/doubts-over-whether-crucial-road-project-including-adare-bypass-will-be-ready-for-the-ryder-cup-in-2027-42294843.html

Further article in the independent

The article confirms that there are three JR cases, and that prelim work will not proceed while these are ongoing

Limerick74

https://www.live95fm.ie/news/live95-news/breaking-planning-boost-for-major-limerick-road-project/

Cookiemunster

Brilliant news. Hopefully the government will allow it to proceed to the next stages without too much delay.

KrisW1001

For the sake of navigation, there's a good argument that the current N69 should be reclassified as a regional route, and have N69 run between N21 at Rathkeale and Foynes.

The current N69 is only a National road because it goes to Foynes. Once that route ceases to be the best way between Foynes and the rest of the network, there's really no reason to keep it as a National road.

marno21

Surely the link from Rathkeale to Foynes will be a national primary route, a new number perhaps?

Dublin and Rosslare ports are at the end of national primary routes (M50, N25) and Cork and Waterford ports have their own national primary routes (N28, N29). As a TEN-T core port with its own purpose built dual carriageway, surely it’s deserving of a unique primary route number.

pigtown

Anyone care to speculate when this might be open?

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120707256#Comment_120707256

It's would take a minimum of 2 years to get to construction (and probably a bit more than that) and then I think the plan is 3 years to build. So 2028 at the earliest.

marno21

This will be fascinating as to what will happen here:

Given all the talk of the Ryder Cup, there are 3 scenarios we could have when the Ryder Cup comes round:

1. Construction has yet to commence
2. Construction is underway and the N21 between Patrickswell and Adare is a building site
3. The M21 is open

I’d rule out 1 as it’s unlikely it’ll take that long to commence. So it’s either get the job done before it or have a massive building site on the main roads into Adare. That would be quite the mess.

I’d imagine this will be split into 2 with the M21 section prioritised and the Foynes link given lesser priority. I can’t see any reason why this couldn’t be open for the Ryder Cup if adequate resources were provided to it.

I told ya

Can anyone direct me to a plan/map of the proposed new roads?

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120708705#Comment_120708705

https://www.foyneslimerick.ie/

..

Pete_Cavan

It's only 17.5km of motorway and only about 12km to the junction at Croagh which would be enough for the Ryder Cup (last resort obviously). No reason why the Adare bypass shouldn't be open before the event.

I assume the reason for the JRs being dropped is because the government agreed to a nice payout to avoid going to court because of the Ryder Cup. Taking JRs was most likely a shake down from the beginning.

I told ya

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120708862#Comment_120708862

Thanks for the link to the map.

Bypassing Adare to the west, IMO, would seem to push the N20/M20 development further down the road. If the Adare bypass was to the east, it would put more pressure to start the N20/M20 build.

IMO, FWIW, it will be interesting to see the layout of Foynes Rd/Rathkeale N21 junction. Will it be another half arsed roundabout effort? Or will it be a proper grade separated, free flowing in all directions, junction? Something like J8 (Kilkenny City) on the M9.

Are there more detailed maps online?

marno21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120709406#Comment_120709406

The map of the junction is on the Foynes Limerick website. Go into Environmental Impact Assessment Report under Publications. It’s under Volume 3 - Figures go into 4.8-4.16

It’s an at grade roundabout.

Cookiemunster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120709406#Comment_120709406

All the maps are available on that site. Look for Final Design. The M21/N21/new Foynes Rd junction will be an at grade roundabout.

The Adare bypass was always going to be North of the village until it got pulled into the M20 project. That suited the M20, but was not the best route for the bypass. This scheme just puts it back where it was originally intended to go.

I told ya

Thanks for the detailed replies.

What's the attraction to roundabouts, on NPR, in this country?

Bypassing Adare will be great news, not only for the through traffic, but also for the local people and businesses.

marno21

I'm presuming given it was revealed last week that the State will be spending 58 million euro assisting with hosting the Ryder Cup that it would be a good idea to at least attempt to get this stretch of road underway and possibly open for the Ryder Cup.

If that is to happen things are going to have to start moving pretty rapidly on procurement and also on the advance works. Thankfully it's not a very complex project and most of it is offline which is a big help.

Given that things tend to seize in Ireland from mid July til early September it'll be interesting to see how things progress here over the next few weeks into months.

marno21

Ball rolling!

https://www.etenders.gov.ie/epps/cft/prepareViewCfTWS.do?resourceId=2038899

The Contract involves the provision of Archaeological Consultancy Services (Stage (i)i Geophysical Survey) for the Foynes to Limerick Road (Including Adare Bypass) Project.

Pete_Cavan

Will archaeology works take place over the winter months or will they wait until the spring? Its a pity the tender didn't issue a few months ago.

Limerick74

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120819890#Comment_120819890

It’s a geophysical survey (no digging) so they can work through the autumn & winter.

lordleitrim

https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/local-news/1258081/transport-body-to-hold-talks-with-limerick-farmers.html

Looks like the CPO process won't be plain sailing....

Cookiemunster

There's nothing in that article to suggest that. The CPOs have already been granted by ABP. It's just a case of agreeing a price with the individual landowners now. The IFA want to do this negotiation on behalf of the farmers, but they can't stop the CPOs.

And it's seems from the article that the owners have already received Notice to Treat and Notice to Enter which means that the lands are already in the possession of LCCC/TII.