State pays out €56.5m for lands along route of tunnel
LANDOWNERS along the route of a new €810m tunnel scheme enjoyed a €56.5m bonanza from selling land to the State, new figures show.
One landowner received €10.4m as part of as Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO), figures from Limerick Co Council have revealed.
The tunnel, due to open at the end of this month or early August, is expected to end the daily gridlock in Limerick.
The aim is to remove 40,000 vehicles from the city's arteries, linking all the main routes -- Dublin, Cork, Kerry, and Ennis/Shannon -- converging on Limerick.
The route will also be the first tolled road in the Midwest and will cost private motorists €1.80 to use.
The council figures show that the State compulsorily purchased 442 acres from 54 landowners for €56.5m along the 9.75km Limerick Southern Ring Road Phase II scheme.
This compares with the purchase of 355 acres from 85 landowners for €16.9m for the 9.5 km Limerick Southern Ring Road Phase I scheme which opened in May 2004.
The tunnel payout averages €1.1m to each landowner and €127,000 per acre compared with an average of €19,882 per landowner and €47,605 per acre for the earlier phase.
The price paid to landowners along the route of the tunnel was influenced by the fact that their lands included city areas, unlike landowners in Phase One whose property was mainly farm land.
Negotiations for the purchase of the lands took place in the years after the CPO was formally confirmed in August 2004.
Limerick Co Council twice refused access under the Freedom of Information Act to disclose individual amounts paid to landowners.
The most recent refusal before yesterday's decision was July 2009 when it stated that the purchase of land was still the subject of ongoing negotiations and the process was not yet complete and the release of the information could disclose negotiating positions.
Largest
Besides one landowner receiving €10.4m, the figures show that the landowner to receive the second highest amount received €8m with a third receiving €6.6m and a fourth receiving €5m.
The figures show that a fifth landowner received €4.8m with a sixth receiving €4m. A further five landowners received sums between €2.9m and €1.1m.
The tunnel scheme is currently the largest ever public road capital project in the Midwest and is being constructed on the basis of a Public Private Partnership (PPP)' with 'Direct Route' securing the contract.
The toll scheme anticipates that the operator will generate €456 million from tolls over a 30-year period.
- Gordon Deegan
Irish Independent
