10 days to start of M50 Barrier- Free Tolling! NRA announces arrangements for removal of WestLink toll plaza
- Removal of the existing West Link toll plaza will commence on 30th August 2008 and it will take about 8 to 9 weeks before traffic is in its final lane layout;
- Removal will take place in three stages (see sketches, forwarded separately). For the first stage traffic will be channelled through the four toll lanes closest to the centre of the motorway. Traffic management measures will be in place – lane separators, rumble strips, speed limits;
- During this first phase dismantling of the toll canopy and toll islands for the outer three lanes will be undertaken. This first phase will take up to one week to complete;
- At the end of the first phase the three toll lanes on either side furthest from the central area will have been removed and the surface reconstructed and marked out with 4 traffic lanes. The second phase of the works will then begin;
- Traffic will be moved onto the four new lanes (in each direction) and dismantling of the remainder of the toll plaza will commence. This second phase of work will take about 8 weeks;
- Because the work is being carried out in the middle of a live motorway the toll building has to be dismantled rather than demolished. Dismantling of the toll building will take place from the top down with as many items as possible separated for recycling – roof tiles will be removed by hand and recycled, insulation will be baled for reuse; timber will be segregated and sent to for timber products manufacturing; metals will be sent to foundries for re-melting; concrete and rubble will be reused in a nearby road scheme;
- At the end of the second phase the traffic will be moved back into its final configuration of 4 lanes in each direction;
- The third phase of the works is the completion of the areas either side of the motorway at the existing plaza. The works involved here are relatively minor – fencing, topsoiling and grassing, barriers and similar items;
- This phase, which will take a few weeks to complete, won’t affect traffic which will now be running in its final lane layout;
- While some of the improvement that will be delivered by barrier-free tolling will become visible after the existing toll plaza is removed, the full benefits of barrier-free tolling will only come with the full completion of the M50 upgrade in 2010;
- After completion of the plaza removal, there will be some improvement in southbound traffic flow due to the fact that there is a number of kilometres before the next section of construction work which is south of Ballymount Junction;
- However, the improvement in the northbound direction will be much more limited because of the upgrading works for the northern section of the M50 which commence just a kilometre north of the existing plaza at the N3 junction. Because of the nature of those works there will continue to be substantial queuing in the northbound direction due to these carriageway widening works.
Other Items: NRA anticipates “teething” problems with new Barrier-free tolling system
It is not possible to introduce a large and complex system such as barrier-free tolling which will affect 100,000 users per day without some difficulties arising. There will be “teething issues” with the system, there will be a lack of familiarity for most users, and there will be criticism from people who don’t want to change to the new payment methods. Everyone using the new system, from the users on the road to the retailers accepting M50 payments in shops will be going through a learning curve – it will take several weeks before the system and M50 users settle into a normal pattern;- During that settling in period, the NRA will deal with all of the problems that arise in a professional, efficient and customer focussed way. We understand that many people will find the transition to the barrier-free system difficult at first – however, once the transition is complete everyone should start to see some of the benefits;
- Problems that are likely to arise include: incorrect number plate details given for payment; incorrect reading of number plates by the system (expected to be very small but will occur); tags not read by the system because they are not mounted correctly in vehicles; vans which previously went through West-link as cars but which will now have to pay correct goods vehicle rate; payment account changes not notified by people to eFlow;
We ask that people are patient and tolerant during this start-up phase – we all need to recognise that there will be difficulties and everything will not be as smooth as we might all like it to be; - During this start-up phase our 24 hour call centre (LoCall 1890 501050) will have almost 400 personnel staffing the phone lines to deal with payment queries, set up accounts or just explain what is happening on the M50.
For Further Information Contact:
Sheila Flanagan, NRA: 01 6658703
Caroline O’Brien, NRA: 01 6658770