[PR] M4 Kinnegad-Enfield-Kilcock Motorway - Notice of Publication of Draft Bye-Laws

Victor

http://www.nra.ie/News/NewsAnnouncements/htmltext,1508,en.html

M4 Kinnegad-Enfield-Kilcock Motorway - Notice of Publication of Draft Bye-Laws

The National Roads Authority, in exercise of the powers conferred under section 61 of the Roads Act, 1993, as amended by section 274 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000 proposes to make bye-laws in respect of the use of the M4 Kinnegad-Enfield-Kilcock Motorway.

Please click here for further details.
Please click here for a copy of the Draft Bye-Laws.

Thomond Pk

NRA By-Laws wrote:

ENFIELD RE-ENTRY ARRANGEMENTS
16. Where a Vehicle has passed through a Toll Collection Location and within a three
hour period passes through a second Toll Collection Location in the same
direction of travel, the driver of such Vehicle shall be exempt from paying the
Appropriate Toll at the second Toll Collection Location subject to:
(a) the driver having requested and obtained a free re-entry pass at the first
Toll Collection Location and presenting that free re-entry pass at the
second Toll Collection Location, or
(b) record of passage through the first Toll Collection Location is available
from an ETC transaction.

Good to see the local cement industry will be getting discounted passage

impr0v

Thomond Pk wrote:

Good to see the local cement industry will be getting discounted passage

Good to see you back that statement up with such hard facts and detail.

Victor

That clause was probably originally written for the residents (and visitors) or Drogheda where the didn't want to double charge people for stopping in the town. It might not be appropriate for the M4.

Thomond Pk

impr0v wrote:

Good to see you back that statement up with such hard facts and detail.

I give you the 'Quarries and Ancillary Activities Guidelines for Planning Authorities' as relevant to section 261 of the Registration of Quarries


At page 5 paragraph 2

By their nature, aggregates can only be worked where they occur. Sand and stone have a low value-to-weight ratio, and therefore it is generally neither economically nor environmentally sustainable to transport them any great distance to their market due to increased transport costs. Many pits and quarries tend to be located within 25 km of urban areas, where most construction takes place.

The Transportation section of the National Development plan was designed to provide 'Inter-Urban Routes' this was to be financed by a mix of borrowing and tolled routes. These routes were not designed as either commuter routes or for local traffic. To make the intended users of the routes pay i.e. inter-urban/international logisitcs operators and exempt local usage such as aggregates/cement protucers is contrary to the intention of the road in the first place.

Looking at transport patterns just from an observational point of view, how many other classes of journey do you know which involve repassing the same route in the same direction within three hours?

This motorway sits on and close to the Esker that runs accross the central plain and has a massive number of quarries many of which are illegal due to lack of any planning consent whatsoever. Now their principal customer is giving free passage to these operators.

is_that_so

Thomond Pk wrote:

Looking at transport patterns just from an observational point of view, how many other classes of journey do you know which involve repassing the same route in the same direction within three hours?

I think this similar to Drogheda on the M1 , you can "pop in" and "pop out" again inside 3 hours and carry on your journey.

Thomond Pk

is_that_so wrote:

Where a Vehicle has passed through a Toll Collection Location and within a three hour period passes through a second Toll Collection Location in the same direction of travel, the driver of such Vehicle shall be exempt from paying the Appropriate Toll at the second Toll Collection Location

I can see the point you are making and that would be a good way to keep the locals on side but the above section of the regulations is very clear it must be in the same direction. In other words popping in, popping out, popping back in again and then getting another free journey if they can pop back out again within three hours of paying the toll in that direction. What is to stop the flagrant abuse of this 'free entry passes' system whilst the ordinary inter-regional or commuting motorist pays full dollar.


I noted with interest the main complainant on RTE News footage in relation to the Drogheda bypass toll was pictured beside an aggregates rigid.

impr0v

I'm lost, where did you get this whole aggregate conspiracy from?

The clause was brought in after lobbying on behalf of the Enfield Business community which claimed that the tolling arrangement as initially proposed would effectively deter road users from leaving the motorway and doing any business in the village, as it penalised them with a second toll upon rejoining the motorway. Under this arrangement traffic which leaves the motorway, while travelling either east or westbound, at Enfield and then rejoins the motorway within three hours to travel in the same direction pays the same as traffic that uses the full length of the motorway, i.e. one full price toll. How this ties in to your evil aggregate producers world domination theory has yet to be made clear.

Victor

For clarity, I understand the 3 hour arrangement is only if you use both tolls in the one direction in 3 hours, which limits it to local traffic, no 2-for-the-price-of-1 deals.

Thomond Pk

I misinterpreted that one as it is quite ambiguous and I've never heard of a 38kms toll road with more than one set of tolls on it before. Surely it would have been simpler to have two rates of toll and charge for the portion of the motorway used as opposed to charging full price. Electronic tolling will be welcome as no ambiguity will emerge once it isn't powered by an IT system as effective as e-voting or the health payroll system.

I do feel that a weight limit should be introduced to protect retail and residential amenity within Enfield.