Port Tunnel bill could exceed €750m estimate

THE final bill for the Dublin Port Tunnel could exceed the estimated cost of €750 million because of a dispute between Dublin City Council and contractors working on the State’s largest ever infrastructural project.

The deputy city engineer Tim Brick admitted yesterday that the original completion date for the project should have been last January.

It is now anticipated that the Port Tunnel will not open until May 1, next year.

Mr Brick said contractors working on the site claimed the delays were caused by a number of factors including restricted working hours, difficult ground conditions, diversions of services and additional health and safety requirements.

However, he insisted that Dublin City Council did not accept any of these excuses put forward by the contractors.

“All of these [claims] will be vigorously refuted and will be robustly defended,” said Mr Brick.

He also revealed that the local authority had received a total of 223 complaints to date about alleged property damage from residents living along the route of the tunnel.

Mr Brick said the vast majority of complaints related to cracks on buildings. “There has been no incident of major structural damage,” he remarked.

The average payment to complainants whose homes required repairs has been about €1,350.

Speaking during an inspection of the Port Tunnel for TDs and senators yesterday, junior Transport Minister Ivor Callely declined to comment on the possibility of the cost of the project going over budget as discussions were “at a delicate stage”.

The minister said improvement work was being carried out on the M50 to help alleviate the additional congestion that the opening of the Port Tunnel would create on the city’s C-ring motorway.

He stressed that the Port Tunnel was part of a major investment programme to alleviate traffic congestion in Dublin city.

“The Port Tunnel will have a tremendously beneficial impact on traffic flow in the Dublin area, taking thousands of HGVs off residential roads by facilitating improved access to Dublin port,” said Mr Callely.

It is estimated that drivers will take just six minutes to travel the 5.6km route between the M1 and Dublin Port.

While praising the Port tunnel as “a phenomenal piece of infrastructure”, Fine Gael Transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said she felt it would still cause major additional congestion on the M50.