M3 symbol of our folly
Sir -- As the M3 opens, its closure is an inevitability if we want to protect our heritage and our pockets.
Rath Lugh is an ice esker and the vibrations of heavy vehicles will do immense damage over time. Luckily, the people of Meath say they won't use it anyway because the cost of tolls makes it financially unviable.
Of course, if we temporarily tied it back to the N3 after Roestown, rejoining the M3 at Navan, and rerouted it with the extremely financially viable Leinster Orbital that strangely goes the route the M3 should have in the first place, we could avoid damage to our heritage and make the combined M3/Leinster Orbital financially viable. Then a ban on HGV traffic from the N2 and N3, making the controversial Slane by-pass unnecessary. All for the price of an extra six kilometres of road.
It seems that the economic destruction of our State coincides with decisions made at Tara, from the wrong route taken in 2001 to the destruction at Rath Lugh in March 2008. And now in 2010, we have the eventual realisation of the reality of the financial lodestone we have signed up to.
One could only wonder whether Yeats knew something when he wrote of "bitter memories".
Pauline Bleach,
NSW 2042, Australia
