Tunnels fiasco - Proper traffic system needs green light

WHEN it comes to tunnels, Ireland’s record is, by any standard, far from impressive.

In Dublin, the port tunnel, designed to remove lorries from the city centre, is something of a joke because it is too small to take the biggest trucks. So, unless cladding is removed from the tunnel roof, mammoth lorries will continue to trundle through the city.

In Cork, where admittedly the Jack Lynch Tunnel has greatly relieved congestion, the planners also got it wrong. The Watergrasshill bypass is resulting in long tailbacks at the tunnel, which is handling more than 50,000 vehicles daily, twice the volume predicted when it was opened in the mid-1990s.