Some of the country’s biggest road projects could be delayed because of funding uncertainty over the coming years, the head of the State’s roads building agency has warned.
The ambitious M20 Cork to Limerick transport project — the country’s first multi-modal transport scheme and the largest single active travel project proposed in Ireland — and the M28 Cork to Ringaskiddy motorway are among the schemes which could be hit with delays because of how funding is allocated annually to Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), its chief executive warned.
Peter Walsh has called publicly for a multi-annual funding allocation that would give TII certainty for several years ahead, and allow it to better plan for projects that take years to advance.
He told the while several large capital schemes were at various stages of development, TII’s pipeline for new road schemes was “very lean”, with just two projects with An Bórd Pleanála for approval.
“There is a difficulty with the [roads project] pipeline at the moment,” he said. “The second half of the National Development Plan from 2026 to 2030 has a very ambitious programme but currently our pipeline is very lean.
“We have only two schemes with An Bord Pleanála — Galway city and Slane.
“We would very much like to get more schemes into that pipeline but the current circumstances with funding constraints has resulted in a bit of a delay in the progression of that pipeline.”
Advance works have been under way for two years on the M28 Cork to Ringaskiddy project, with tenders for the scheme published earlier this month in the hope of contracts being signed later this year.
But Mr Walsh said the lack of confirmed funding for TII over the coming years has created a level of uncertainty about the progression of the scheme.
He also sought to dampen expectation about the delivery timeline for the massive M20 transport project between Cork and Limerick, where work to identify a preferred route is almost ready for public consultation.
“A scheme of that scale is a difficult one to get through the planning process, to get all the documentation together,” he said.
“We have the preferred route almost identified but I don’t want to raise too many expectations about how quickly we can get through the planning process.
“It has been a torturous process over the last few years and we don’t expect that to be an easy process.”
“But I think Limerick City and County Council have identified a very good mobility solution for connecting the two cities and we look forward to seeing it going through the planning process and onto construction.”
He said securing funding certainty for several years ahead is vital for TII to be able to plan in line with the long-term delivery timeline for large capital projects.
“We would like to have a confirmed multi-annual [funding] programme so that we can plan and share those plans with more certainty,” he said.
“The Department of Transport is very supportive of the portfolio of projects that we are trying to bring forward, but I suppose there is only so much to go around and priorities have to be made and at the moment the roads programme and particularly the major schemes in the pipeline have had to take a little bit of a back seat, but we would hope to be able to move on with that in the near future.”
Earlier this year, Mr Walsh told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications it was important the State “drives out delays” to the delivery of transport infrastructure.
He said ensuring a reasonably stable supply of tendering opportunities for the civil engineering sector was vital for contractors to maintain and develop their capabilities, and said the Government’s “windfall capital fund” would help avoid stop-start funding of infrastructure, especially during downturns.