NRA may drop objection to motorway services

The National Roads Authority (NRA) may revoke its policy of objecting to the construction of service stations along motorway routes following an outcry from haulage and other motoring bodies.

The NRA is to tell an Oireachtas committee today that it has agreed to review its policy on the matter following a request from Minister for Transport Martin Cullen.

The State agency signalled its preference last month to depart from normal European practice and have service stations developed off slip-roads that connect motorways with other routes rather than on motorways themselves.

In its 2004 annual report, the NRA added that it planned to continue "to raise objections to any proposals that are made for the provision of online service areas".

However, NRA director of corporate affairs Michael Egan said yesterday the body was now re-examining the issue with a view to balancing the needs of motorists with the "commercial viability" of proposed service station developments.

He stressed that the NRA had never intended to divert motorway traffic into small towns and villages for key services. Nor had it planned to locate service stations large distances from motorways.

Rather, he said, the authority had hoped to exploit existing interchanges as a cost-effective means of rolling out a service infrastructure. He said the UK was increasingly using such locations for service stations as they could be accessed by traffic travelling in both directions.

He added: "There would be no question of going a mile off the road to a service station. People won't travel a mile, nor would we expect them to do. That would not be meeting their needs."

While the review is not due to be completed until the end of the summer, it is understood the NRA still favours a departure from the European norm.

The authority's chief executive Fred Barry will be questioned further on the matter at today's meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport.