Council has ‘full confidence’ in troubled tunnel

DUBLIN City Council yesterday said it had full confidence in the capital’s troubled Port Tunnel, due to open in April.

After it emerged last week that half a litre of water per second was leaking into the underpass, City Manager John Fitzgerald confronted controversial issues like leaks as well as the height, cost and damage to homes from boring.

He said there had been a lot of misinformation and an inordinate amount of publicity about the €752 million tunnel.

“The leak looked worse than it is and made for great pictures but the reality is that it is minor,” he explained in a statement.

He said it was important to realise how important the tunnel would be as a piece of transport infrastructure.

“The recent leak in the tunnel, is part and parcel of the routine issues that arise on a huge engineering project like this.”

He insisted that rigorous testing was being carried out by engineers on a regular basis.

“Last week’s leak is being fixed and is not causing any undue safety or programme concerns. Dublin City Council has full confidence in the tunnel.”

Mr Fitzgerald also disputed the size of the cost overrun on the project.

Referring to the confusion about the price-tag for the project, he said the original €448m being quoted by critics was the construction bid cost.

It didn’t include additional expenses like land acquisition, construction supervision, project insurance, legal fees, utilities diversions and overhead properties guarantee scheme costs.

“These total to €304m, bringing the overall project budget to €752m. The final cost will not be significantly more than this figure. In effect the Dublin Port Tunnel will come in close to the current budget cost.”

He said any further contractual claims made by the contractor will be vigorously contested by the council and the National Roads Authority.

Mr Fitzgerald also said claims of structural damage to homes in the Marino/Fairview areas were not true.

A total of 235 householders have notified the council of possible claims.

A total of 124 house repairs have been completed to date. A further 111 are the subject of ongoing settlement negotiations with the property owners.

On the issue of height of the tunnel, Mr Fitzgerald said that if the council were to start designing and building the Dublin Port Tunnel again today, it would still build it to the same height.