Drogheda Bypass from Monday

DMC

From AA Roadwatch

The new Drogheda Bypass will open on Monday 9th June. After the official opening ceremony at 10am, the five new interchanges will at Gormanstown, Duleek Rd, Donore Rd, Mell and Monasterboice will be progressively opened over the following three hours.

All entry ramps to the motorway should be open by early afternoon. Drivers are asked to exercise caution, especially at Gormanstown at the southern end of the bypass and at Monasterboice at the northern end where the layout has been changed.

The Bypass will be tolled, the main toll plaza will be located 7km south of Drogheda town. The charges are as follows EUR0.80 for motorbikes, EUR1.50 for cars, EUR2.70 for buses, coaches and light commercial vans, EUR3.80 for HGVs, or EUR4.90 for HGVs with more than four axles

And the Airport - Balbriggan bypass will open 27th June.

Seth Brundle

yeah its great to have a decent stretch of road in this country.
Pity though, that I have to pay for the pleasure (right?), after paying over €513 in motor tax, 2% tax on insurance, 21% vat on servicing & repairs [often caused by the unmaintained roads] & parts and plenty of money going towards the exchequer each week via petrol costs!

unkel

All the taxes the motorist in this country has to face are outrageous, esp. the VRT imo, however:

Originally posted by kbannon
21% vat on servicing & repairs

That is only charged at the lower rate of 13.5%

Turner

Yes, I am never going to go into Drogheda again. EVER!!!!!

eth0_

Originally posted by Chief---
Yes, I am never going to go into Drogheda again. EVER!!!!!

Ha at least you have the choice to say that, I currently LIVE in the sh1thole
Will be nice if the Dublin road becomes quieter once the bypass opens, it's hell trying to get out onto it in the mornings.

Turner

I suppose I would be on my way to dundalk, which isnt much better.

Victor

By 'plaza' they mean booth, as best I know everyone will only have to pay a toll once on their journey. And of course it will signicantly change jouney times to Dundalk, not so much Drogheda.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/856070?view=Eircomnet

Brennan opens first toll motorway in Ireland
From:ireland.com
Monday, 9th June, 2003

The State's first toll motorway was officially opened by the Minister for Transport, Mr Seamus Brennan, this morning.

The new €250 million M1 motorway, which bypasses Drogheda, will operate as a public-private partnership, charging tolls of between 80 cent and €4.90.

Joining the Balbriggan by-pass at Gormanston and the Dunleer by-pass at Monasterboice, the new motorway is expected to significantly cut journey times between Drogheda and Dublin.

The toll comes into effect from tomorrow. There will be 10 tolling plazas, five in each direction, and in each case one plaza will be dedicated to facilitating Electronic Tolling Collection.

According to the Department of Transport, the full impact of the new motorway will be realised later this month when the Dublin Airport to Balbriggan sections of the M1 are opened to traffic. There will then be a continuous 70 kilometre stretch of motorway from Dublin city to south of Dundalk.

Speaking in Drogheda, Mr Brennan reaffirmed the Government's commitment to prioritising major infrastructure projects and acclerating the planning process around such initiatives.

Mr Brennan described the motorway as a valuable asset and a visionary project. "The vision is in the crowning of this road with a truly stunning feature in the dramatic Cable-Stayed Bridge" which spans the River Boyne, he added.

Seth Brundle

Originally posted by Victor
Brennan opens first toll motorway in Ireland
From:ireland.com
Monday, 9th June, 2003

The media have been stating this line all day now. Correct me if I am wrong but the M50 is a Motorway (Irish Standard!) and it too has a toll booth, but is it not a toll motorway?

Victor

Originally posted by kbannon
The media have been stating this line all day now. Correct me if I am wrong but the M50 is a Motorway (Irish Standard!) and it too has a toll booth, but is it not a toll motorway?

No the M50 has a toll bridge, oops so does the Drogheda Bypass. :rolleyes:

DMC

But on the M50, only the bridge is tolled.

Every which way you use the Drogheda bypass, you pay. You dont have to cross the bridge to be hit.

Victor

Map (big PDF file)http://www.nra.ie/News/DownloadableDocumentation/d846.PDF

A small amount of traffic (Belfast-Drogheda and vice-versa) will not pay tolls

davil

Originally posted by eth0_
Ha at least you have the choice to say that, I currently LIVE in the sh1thole
Will be nice if the Dublin road becomes quieter once the bypass opens, it's hell trying to get out onto it in the mornings.

Drogheda is not a sh1thole - it may have many many faults and smells and gammy places etc. but there are worse towns to live in - have you ever seen Balbriggan?

davil

Originally posted by unkel
All the taxes the motorist in this country has to face are outrageous, esp. the VRT imo, however:



That is only charged at the lower rate of 13.5%

When I worked for a Peugeot garage it was 12.5% - has it changed since????? Or were my bosses just dumb?

DMC

Just did a reci.

One word for the bridge at night. Spectacular!

eth0_

Originally posted by davil
Drogheda is not a sh1thole - it may have many many faults and smells and gammy places etc. but there are worse towns to live in - have you ever seen Balbriggan?

Dav! :-)

On the subject of the toll plaza, I got a taxi yesterday from Drogheda station the driver said she had been charged yesterday, on the day it was supposed to be FREE all day, there were ads on local radio and press, I even read in the Herald last night that the road was free for the first day, yet they were charging people? WTF?

sceptre

Originally posted by davil
When I worked for a Peugeot garage it was 12.5% - has it changed since????? Or were my bosses just dumb?

Went up in the last budget.

smiles

They changed their minds, people are / were being charged.

I've a little rant about it on the North East board.

anyway drogheda isn't that bad, i live there for the moment

But they didnt have all the lanes open on monday, i dont know about today, i'll be going over it in an hour or so.

But Drogheda is fantastic, it's empty of traffic, it's all freeflowing and the new link to the north road is great.

It's doing what it was meant to do, bypass drogheda, speed things up and cut out the traffic.

Thumbs up.

<< Fio >>

Redshift

I used it twice today going to Dundalk and back it's a good time saving alright, But be warned if your driving anything that could possibly be a commercial vehicle you gonna get wacked for the full van rate:mad: I drive a car van belonging to the job on the way up I was charged the car rate same as the toll bridges in Dublin but then on the way back I was handing over the 1.50 and you're wan in the kiosk says oh sorry you're a commercial vehicle it's 2.75 so I said it's a car van I.E. car with no back seats or windows and besides I payed the car rate on the way up, but she wasn't having any of it :rolleyes: I always thought the toll was linked to the weight / number of axels. But it seems this bridge carries a "commercial penalty" which also applies to jeeps BTW. Fncking rip off Ireland as usual:mad:

Red

davil

Originally posted by eth0_
On the subject of the toll plaza, I got a taxi yesterday from Drogheda station the driver said she had been charged yesterday, on the day it was supposed to be FREE all day, there were ads on local radio and press, I even read in the Herald last night that the road was free for the first day, yet they were charging people? WTF?

Now that is what I heard too. Busterds!!! I think the workers were probably pocketing it - who knows - you get screwed in all kinds of ways here in DIRELAND!!!!

Seth Brundle

Out of curiosity - what would happen if you managed to get through the toll booth (on this motorway or on either the East or West Links) without paying?
Presumably the gardai would do their usual fúck-all.

Redshift

Originally posted by kbannon
Out of curiosity - what would happen if you managed to get through the toll booth (on this motorway or on either the East or West Links) without paying?
Presumably the gardai would do their usual fúck-all.

They would definatley get your Reg as they have cameras possitioned to get a shot of your face and your Reg number. I wouldn't imagine much would come of it though the amount of hassle involved for the paltry sum involved it probably wouln't be worth the trouble to pursue you. But you never know, If you try it let us know what happens;)

Red

Seth Brundle

I don't think I would do it - I am just curious as to what would happen.
Even if they took your reg number, they would not recognise it the next time you came up and if (in the very unlikely event that) they did just say that you just bought the car!

Redshift

Fecking toll bridges, They're nothing but a licence to print money, I am in the Civil Defence and often have to drive their vehices which are state owned vehicles that are entitled to free passage but to hear some of the booth operators you would swear you were trying to rob them. the FNck I'm going to pay a toll for a state vehicle and usually trailer which I'm driving as a volunteer on my own time. They often demand to see the tax disk with has a big red "exempt" stamped on it, ffs they must have shares in NTR or something;)

Ryan

eth0_

This story was on the front page of the Drogheda Leader yesterday, a lot of people just turned off their engines and sat there until they were given a note saying they were exempt from paying. Fair f*cks to them I say!
The others who wouldn't pay, their reg number was taken and they'll be sent a bill in the post. For 80c. FFS, it'll probably cost them as much in admin costs to send the bill out!

NTR made no comment about it

Victor

Originally posted by Redshift
They would definatley get your Reg as they have cameras possitioned to get a shot of your face and your Reg number. I wouldn't imagine much would come of it though the amount of hassle involved for the paltry sum involved it probably wouln't be worth the trouble to pursue you. But you never know, If you try it let us know what happens;)

You have a certain period to pay, otherwise you breach the Bye-Laws and you get fined (much like many other traffic offences).

Victor

Dublin Airport - Balbriggan due open next Monday.

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/915986?view=Eircomnet

Truckers boycott bypass over high-cost M-way toll
From:The Irish Independent
Monday, 23rd June, 2003
Paul Melia

THE country's road hauliers are to boycott the new Drogheda bypass and go back to using old routes, including a notorious accident blackspot in Slane, Co Meath.

The Irish Road Haulage Association decided over the weekend that the toll costs on the new motorway are too expensive for its 1,350 members.

Using the tolled motorways is prohibitively expensive for most hauliers, they say, and they are being forced to return to "free" routes in an effort to keep costs down.

One member company, an IRHA spokesman said, estimated that it would cost around €70,000 to use the bypass annually. It costs €4.90 to travel the motorway each way, and the IRHA has called for a 2pc levy to be imposed on the net profits of all businesses which benefit from using the roads to fund the infrastructure.

"Nobody consulted us about the rate of toll or asked if we could pay it," Jimmy Quinn, the IRHA's director of communications said last night. "We want the whole thing looked at."

"Some thought needs to be put into it, we don't have a bottomless pool of cash. We are proposing a 2pc levy of net profits for everybody. The cost of using the Drogheda bypass was by far outstripping the revenue gained. We'll use the conventional routes we've used for the past 40 years."

Cllr Aine Dillon Gallagher (FG), Slane village, said last night that although she was sympathetic to the hauliers, the numbers of trucks going through the village had increased since the Drogheda bypass opened.

"The local people are horrified, it's back to the bad old days and a bypass for Slane is needed even more," she said.