Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 820: To ask the Minister for Transport the guidelines and regulations, currently in existence or proposed, governing roadworks in respect of temporary and permanent road resurfacing; the road signs and speed limits appropriate to such works; the body responsible for enforcement of such regulations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25809/05]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The traffic signs manual sets out directions and advice given to road authorities by the Minister for Transport pursuant to section 95(16) of the Road Traffic Act 1961 regarding the provision and use of warning and information traffic signs. A copy of the manual is available in the Oireachtas Library. Chapter eight of the manual sets out advice on the signs to be deployed at road works. Responsibility for the provision, positioning, maintenance and monitoring of such traffic signs at road works locations on non-national roads is a matter for the individual road authority and in the case of national roads, the National Roads Authority.

Since late 2004 my Department has been engaged in a comprehensive review of the traffic signs manual in association with the National Roads Authority and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Consultants have been engaged to prepare a new manual. It is intended that the use of the manual by road authorities will ensure a high quality of signposting in the State through uniformity of practice and the creation of a consistent approach to signing, including at road works.

On the question of applying speed limits, section 10 of the Road Traffic Act 2004 provides that a county or city manager may make a road works speed limit order for the application of a speed limit on any road or part of a road, including a motorway, where road works are being carried out. A road works speed limit order can be applied for any period of not more than 12 months and the minimum speed limit that may be put in place by such an order is 30 km/h. This provision of the 2004 Act came into operation in January 2005.

Before making an order under section 10, a manager must give notice of the proposal to the Garda Commissioner and consider any representations made by the Commissioner. The consent of the National Roads Authority must be obtained in respect of any proposals to apply a road works speed limit on any part of a national road or a motorway. Notice of the making of a road works speed limit order must be published in one or more newspapers in circulation in the county or city where the road in respect of which the order is to have effect is located.

Section 9 of the Road Traffic Act 2004 provides for the application through the making of by-laws by the elected members of county and city councils of special speed limits in lieu of the speed limits that apply on a default basis to roads and motorways. The section also provides that the Minister for Transport may issue guidelines to county and city councils in relation to the making of special speed limit by-laws. I issued such guidelines on 18 April 2005 and they include a specific reference to the deployment of speed limits at road works. A copy of the guidelines is available in the Oireachtas Library and may also be viewed on my Department's website —www.transport.ie under roads-publications.

The determination of what speed limit should apply at particular locations in lieu of a default speed limit is a matter for the elected members of city and county councils in the case of special speed limit by-laws and for county and city managers in the case of road works speed limit orders.

On the subject of guidelines, the National Roads Authority has a detailed publication list of guideline and information documents on various aspects of road maintenance on its website www.nra.ie/Publications/Resources under the heading of road design and construction. In addition, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has a list of guideline publications, primarily in relation to regional and local roads, on its website www.environ.ie/publications under roads division.