COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 08, 2010

MOTION NO. 12

MOTION: Councillor J. Lahart

That this Council requests the NRA and M50 Concessions, the agents responsible for the M50 upgrade, to give a full explanation as to how protocols and procedures relating to noise and night time work have been flagrantly and regularly contravened, without recourse to this local authority or local residents and to outline what guarantees they can give to this Council that they either entities are capable of securing the support of local people given their record in this regard.

REPORT:

The Phase 2 M50 Upgrade Scheme is a PPP (similar to Design & Build)  Scheme which is being implemented by the National Roads Authority (NRA). To ensure that these major works are undertaken in a proper and orderly manner the National Roads Authority has engaged the services of Roughan O’Donovan Consulting Engineers (RO’D) for the purpose of monitoring / supervising the activities of Contractor M50 Concessions Ltd.

The Upgrade Works in the vicinity of Scholarstown Junction consists of the design and construction of additional (third) traffic lane on both northbound and southbound carriageways as well as major reconstruction of the Scholarstown Junction whereby new Bridges will be constructed to provide six traffic lanes and footpaths over the Motorway in place of the existing two-lane arrangements.

In undertaking the above major works it is inevitable that there will be some level of inconvenience to both users of the M50 and Residents living in the vicinity of the M50 Junction. The need to keep traffic flowing during business hours at this busy Junction has be balanced against the inconvenience of night works to local residents.

Bearing these factors in mind M50CL in conjunction with the Council’s M50 Liaison Engineer and RO’D Rep has held various meetings with local Residents to deal with a variety of issues raised by Residents including noise arising from night works. In this connection M50CL has explained that it is contractually obliged to keep two lanes open on both northbound and southbound carriageways as well as entry / exit ramps between 6 am and 10 pm every day and this constrains it’s ability to work in these areas until night time hours. As a consequence of these discussions the Council’s Liaison Engineer has secured agreement from the NRA that in order to reduce the amount of night works to a minimum the entry / exit ramps can be closed at 8 pm such that noisy works such as excavation/planing can be done by 11 pm and also that traffic diversions can be put in place at weekends to access areas not normally available during weekdays. These arrangements which have been discussed and agreed with local residents seem in general terms to be working reasonably well and it is also the case that RO’D’s Rep has refused the Contractor permission to work at night in situations where the work can be done during the day or weekend.

 The Contractor has indicated that he expects all major works on the M50 and Scholarstown Junction to be completed by end Feb 2010.