Stand-alone Tuam and Claregalway bypasses if motorway plan axed

By TONY GALVIN THERE is good news and bad news on the roads front for the Tuam area this week. The bad news is that it is becoming increasingly obvious to the Government and the NRA that investment will not be found to fund the Gort to Tuam M18/17 Motorway in the near future. However, the good news is that Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, and the NRA, have agreed on a contingency plan. If the motorway project is mothballed then funding will be made available for stand-alone bypasses of Tuam and Claregalway. These have been identified as the two main bottlenecks on the Atlantic Corridor and their building will free up traffic on the N17 which has been a major problem for decades. The plans is for the Government to leave their share of the PPP funding on the table for another six months to see if investors can be found to back the project. If at the end of that period there are no investors then the monies allocated for the motorway will be transferred towards stand-alone bypasses of Tuam and Claregalway. Galway East Deputy Colm Keaveney told The Herald that he had been in direct talks with the Minister on this matter. He said he was impressed that the Minister had contacted the NRA immediately and there was now agreement between them on the contingency plan. The capital roads programme drawn up by the last Government allocated €400 million to cover a four-year plan. This figure has been revised drastically downwards to €200 million. The halving of the budget and the reluctance by international investors to get involved with Irish project in the current climate does not bode well for major infrastructural projects. Many, such as the Western Rail Corridor, have effectively been consigned to planning limbo. They are ready to go but are stymied by the drying up of funding. Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has warned that the previous government's four-year plan 'doesn't stack up' and serious adjustments would have to be made. â€ËœÃ¢€ËœMy priority will be to maintain existing roads and railways rather than undertake new spending projects,' he said. The Gort to Tuam motorway project and Tuam by-pass were to be constructed under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) process. This involves the State fronting a portion of the cost and the private companies involved in building it providing the remainder. Their investment is then recouped from the State over a set period, possibly by way of tolls. However the Transport Minister has warned that the public needs to be aware that the State has little or no money to invest and unless private funding can be sources, then many project have very little chance of going ahead. Deputy Keaveney said that foreign investors were increasingly nervous of investing in Ireland and the recent downgrading of our status by the major ratings agencies had not helped matters. 'It's hard to attract investment when Irish bonds are being referred to as junk. The Government is trying to stretch available recourses and make the best possible use of funding. The fall-back position if the M18/17 motorway between Gort and Tuam does not go ahead is still a positive one for North Galway. The bypass of Tuam has been put on the long finger for years. If we can get this project off the ground it will be a huge boost for Tuam,' he said.