Council to reassess €4.5m HGV toll fees

DUBLIN CITY Council is to reconsider its payment of some €4.5 million in tolls over the next six years for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) which have to use the East Link toll bridge. The move could result in the return of five-axle lorries to the city streets.

The HGV management strategy introduced in February 2007 banned lorries of five axles or more from the city streets between 7am and 7pm. The council agreed to pay the tolls of five-axle lorries which have to use the East Link bridge to move between the north and south ports.

To date, the council has paid €1.6 million in toll rebates to hauliers who have had to drive their five-axle lorries across the bridge.

The National Toll Road (NTR) contract to operate the bridge ends in December 2015. Until then the council will have to continue to pay the hauliers’ tolls, priced at €4.25 per trip, or open a non-tolled route for five-axle vehicles to reach the port.

The payment arises because under EU regulations a road can only be tolled if a free alternative is available. Before the ban was introduced, the council’s traffic department recommended leaving a street access route open to allow lorries move between the ports, but this was rejected by councillors in favour of a complete ban.

Councillors represented on the city’s transport and traffic committee yesterday said the toll rebates were too great a drain on finances and had to be reviewed.

Brendan O’Brien, head of technical services with the council’s traffic department, said he would prepare a report for councillors on the alternatives to paying the toll.

The council had planned to extend the HGV ban to four-axle vehicles this year. However, Mr O’Brien said to do so would involve paying an extra €3 million in toll rebates to hauliers up to the end of the NTR contract.

“The cost of removing these vehicles could be as high as €500,000 per year and no provision has been made in 2010 budgets for this figure,” Mr O’Brien said.

Monitoring the number of four-axle lorries should continue he said, but the ban should not be extended to these lorries.