2.4.3 A major part of the recent rapid growth in road freight within the island of Ireland is associated with the high recent levels of investment in new construction of dwellings, commercial buildings and transport infrastructure, as well as processed foodstuffs.
For example, over the decade to 2006 the movements of construction materials on Irish roads by Irish registered vehicles increased 6-fold, growing from 14 per cent of all road tonne-kms (36 per cent of all road tonnes lifted) in 1996 to 31 per cent (65 per cent of tonnes lifted) in 2006.
There has also been an increasing concentration of construction materials on Northern Ireland roads, with their proportion
on Northern Ireland registered vehicles growing from 45 per cent of all road tonnes lifted in 1997 to 49 per cent in 2006.
The proportion of total goods vehicle kms due to construction traffic is somewhat lower because of the usage of large vehicles for construction materials with full loads and relatively short lengths of haul.