Luas body says repairs pose no safety threat

EXPERTS have disagreed about the severity of flaws discovered in the Luas tram lines which will cost millions of euro to repair.

A leading independent engineer warned yesterday that the problems, if not resolved, could lead to a derailment, but the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA), the State body overseeing the Luas project, said there was no threat to safety.

A study commissioned by the main contractors involved in the building of Dublin's light rail system found a material laid over the concrete bed beneath the tracks to reduce noise and vibration was not sticking properly in places.

The study was carried out by the Institute of Railway Engineering at the University of Graz in Austria for AMB Joint Ventures, a private multi-national consortium which was preparing to hand over the Luas lines to State ownership.

The experts from Graz found problems along 8km of track on the outer reaches of the two Luas lines. They called the problem "debonding", which means the special polymer material was coming unstuck in places.

Debonding was most severe where the track bends, and it was noted that rain water was able to get in between the concrete and the polymer. The study concluded: "The development of bonding deficiencies gives rise to foresee a growing uncertainty towards the reliability and proper functioning of the system."

The existence of the report was only revealed publicly yesterday but RPA chiefs have been in discussion with AMB since late last year about ways of addressing the problems.

Repair works are scheduled to begin in April and Luas project manager at the RPA, Michael Sheedy, said it was hoped the works would be carried out at night to prevent disruption to the 70,000 passengers who use the Luas each day.

Mr Sheedy said the costs, estimated to run into millions, would all be borne by AMB as the consortium's contract specified that it could only complete the hand-over of the project to the State when it was finished to the standard that would withstand the need for major repairs or improvements for 50 years.

But while the RPA accepted the need for the repairs, it disputed suggestions that the flaws threatened passenger safety.

Eugene O'Brien, Professor of Civil Engineering at University College Dublin, said: "In the bends, it's quite serious because if the water gets in there as the train is going around the corner, it pushes and it squeezes the water out and this squeezing effect can destabilise the whole thing so that the rail would eventually become separated completely," he told RTÉ radio.

"If you ignored it indefinitely... eventually you would get a derailment."

RPA spokesman Ger Hannon said the agency did not accept Prof O'Brien's assessment and denied there was a design problem.

"There is no safety issue involved, there is no cost to the taxpayer and there is a fairly simple solution," Mr Hannon said.

He said the repairs would take a few months and would be subjected to fresh quality control checks before AMB was allowed hand the lines over to the State.