Irish road authority stalling on safety barrier installations, claims newspaper

The Republic of Ireland's National Roads Authority (NRA) will come under strong criticism today (Friday) after admitting that no new safety barriers have been fitted on existing motorways and dual carriageways in the past 18 months.

The revelation, made in the Irish Examiner newspaper, reports that the authority's contractors have still not begun work on a multi-million pound contract to refit and install barriers on all major two-lane roads where the central reservation is less than 15m-wide.

The paper claims that the authority has ignored experts' advice that the inclusion of barriers saves lives while it reportedly debates their effectiveness.

The NRA estimates it will take up to five years to complete its planned programme of replacing and installing safety barriers on the existing road network.

Adopting a new 15m-width standard (up from the original 9m figure) is estimated to cost the NRA almost £51m to upgrade and refit safety barriers along almost 300km of the existing motorway and dual carriageway network in the Republic.

Safety barriers will also be required to be fitted on 900km of new motorways and dual carriageways due to be constructed under the National Roads Programme by summer 2007.