Safety concerns may scupper Port Tunnel changes

Safety issues could halt any plans to change the height of the Dublin Port Tunnel, it emerged today.

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan claimed reports from health and safety consultants showed any alterations to the size and shape of the €715m route would have severe safety implications.

Road haulage groups are campaigning for the operating height of the 4.5km motorway tunnel to be raised from 4.65m to around 5m, to accommodate large trucks.

“I have severe opinions that any change would have safety implications and that (health and safety) reports are very compelling and I would have to take them very seriously into account,” Mr Brennan said.

“It (the reports) would suggest any change in the tunnel at this stage would be unsafe and that is some really compelling advice.”

The minister said a final decision on changes to the tunnel would be made in early September, along with a ruling on whether trucks more than 5m high should be banned from the State’s roads.

A truck management plan for Dublin will also be finalised by the city council in the coming weeks.

The Irish Road Hauliers Association said the tunnel height should match that of bridges built in Ireland since the 1970s – all of which have a standard height of more than 5m.

Jimmy Quinn, IRHA spokesman, said in the end it would be the consumers who feel the impact of restrictions on trucks operating in Ireland.

“If hauliers have to use two trucks where they have so far used one then they are looking at increases in transport costs – inevitably that will be passed on to the consumer,” Mr Quinn said.

He added haulage companies in the UK and Ireland treated the two countries as one and wanted standard transport rules enforced.

Double-decker buses, heavy goods vehicles and cars will be able to use the route which is the size as some of the highest tunnels in Europe. Car drivers will be forced to pay a toll.

Work on the twin tube tunnel, which began in June 2001, is due to be finish next year with the road open to all traffic by the end of 2005.

The route runs from Whitehall in the north of the city, around 25m underneath the Fairview area, linking th port with the M1 motorway to Belfast and the M50.

Mr Brennan said the tunnel was an historic breakthrough in ending years of traffic chaos across Dublin city taking around 9,000 trucks from the capital’s roads each day.

He claimed the tunnel, which broke through at Whitehall in the north of the city today, was a milestone in Irish engineering and a major development for the country’s infrastructure needs.

“It is really exciting today, it’s an important milestone to have four-and-a-half kilometres of motorway literally under the city of Dublin in two separate tunnels,” minister Brennan said.

“It’s the largest engineering project the country has ever undertaken and this will dramatically improve conditions for pedestrians in the Dublin city centre and bring relief to communities and businesses around the city."