Changes on Red Cow to cost 2m euro

Another unplanned change to a key utility close to the Red Cow roundabout will cause further chaos and traffic jams at Dublin's Red Cow roundabout and it will cost €2 million. Frank Connolly reports

Commuters in Dublin face fresh traffic restrictions at the Red Cow roundabout in the coming months following a decision by South Dublin County Council to remove and re-route a Bord Gáis pipeline which was put down last year at a cost of €2 million.

The pipeline, carrying natural gas from Cork to Dublin, was relaid last year but will now be lifted again due to a new design for works planned on the M50. Earlier this year South Dublin County Council awarded a multi-million euro design/build contract to a joint venture between SIAC and the Spanish company Serrovial to alter the M50 between the N4 , the Galway road, and the Ballymount interchange.

The contract involves significant road widening and alterations to the interchanges, including the notorious Red Cow roundabout which will have increased and free-flowing traffic capacity, according to the Council engineers.

The overall project proposed by the consortium, which was contracted under a new design/build method to reduce road-building costs, will take about two years to complete at a cost of €103 million. The Bord Gáis diversion at the Red Cow roundabout will commence in the coming months at a total cost of E2 million, according to the council, and work will be done to as great a degree as possible during off-peak hours, at night and weekends.

"The new scheme from the Ballymount interchange to the N4 will involve widening the M50 and increasing the capacity of the intechange," according to Frank Coffey of the South Dublin County Council. "The changes at the Red Cow will necessitate a move of the gas pipleline which was laid last summer. The work on the gas pipeline should only take a few weeks."

He confirmed that the alterations were due to the new design put forward by SIAC/Serrovial which required last years work to be repeated at the same cost.

"Because of the nature of the contract the ultimate design is done by the contractor. The contractor has the right to put forward a better scheme. The work done last year is not lost but there is further work to be done now," Frank Coffey told Village.