Sticking their heads in the sand – Munster
The traffic chaos resulting from the impending closure of the Obelisk Bridge for at least nine months seems at this stage to be unavoidable despite the efforts of local TDs Ged Nash and Imelda Munster.
It seems also that the various state bodies involved are passing the buck on whether or not to allow a toll holiday at the Donore Road ramp for the duration of the works.
Deputy Nash has been exchanging correspondence with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and last week he suggested to them that tolling at the Donore ramp should be suspended for the duration of the repair works which he said would cost in the region of €3million.
His figure was a bit on the low side – in 2022 a total of €4.02m in tolls was collected at the Donore ramp – €1.95m on the Northbound ramp and €2.07 on the southbound, but the argument still stands.
Closing the Donore toll booth for the duration seems to have been ruled out however. A spokesperson told Deputy Nash that the removal of the Donore ramp tolls would result in traffic diverting from the M1 mainline which would give rise to significant additional traffic volumes on the local road network in the vicinity of Drogheda.
“The ramp tolling protects the local road network from being used as a toll diversion route which, in the absence of the tolls, would result in serious disruption for residents and businesses in the wider vicinity of the local road network” Nash was told.
“Such a circumstance would only serve to compound any traffic issues arising from the closure of the Obelisk Bridge.”
M1 Toll passes
Sinn Fein Deputy Imelda Munster said the obvious solution is to give M1 Toll passes to locals who usually use the Obelisk Bridge. “That would stop people being forced into Drogheda to use the bridges there” she said.
“The traffic study that stated only 1,000 vehicles cross the Obelisk Bridge daily, is out of date and would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. This understated figure is what they based their traffic management plan on.
“The responses from the state bodies so far have been akin to them sticking their heads in the sand. TII said any agreement with the toll operators must be initiated by Louth County Council, but Louth County Council won’t start that process due to lack of funds and The Minister for Transport refers all back to TII.
“However, I’ve written to The Minister for Transport again asking him to source funding for Louth County Council, so in conjunction with the TII they can approach the toll operators about issuing toll passes for locals, based on their Eircodes, affected by the bridge closure.”
