Port Tunnel update

A war of words has developed between Dublin City Council and the Transport Umbrella Group, based at Dublin Port over the final operating height of the Dublin Port Tunnel. John Loughran reports on the latest exchanges.

The 4.5 km Dublin Port Tunnel, with an estimated price tag of £635 million is scheduled for completion in 2005. Designed to reduce travel time for trucks from the M50 to Dublin Port, it will take approximately 9,000 HGVs a day out of the capital.

The tunnel is being constructed with a physical height clearance of 4.9 metres but will have an operational height clearance of 4.65 metres to protect loads and flapping tarpaulins, according to Dublin City Council.
Since 1998 the Transport Umbrella Group has campaigned to have the height restriction increased to cater for vehicles in excess of the 4.65 metres, claiming that approximately 900 trucks per day won’t be able to use the tunnel. The lobby group’s calls have fallen on deaf ears.

Deputy City Engineer in charge of the project, Tim Brick recently ruled out the possibility of increasing the height clearance, claiming it would add another £130 million to the cost of the project and reduce safety margins.
“If we were to accommodate trucks with a height of 5.3 metres (deck clearance on of the Irish Ferries vessel, Ulysses is 5.25 metres) it would involve dropping the floor by 700 to 750mm. This would narrow lane widths which would inevitably reduce safety margins in the tunnel’s enclosed environment,” Mr Brick stated.

Mr Brick added that a three month survey of port related traffic around the north port found that only 1.3 per cent of HGVs would not fit in the tunnel. A similar survey of the south port terminal is currently underway.
The National Roads Authority has specified a 5.3 metre clearance on all over-bridges in its road programme, but Mr Brick insists that this was intended to allow for resurfacing of the roads in the years to come.
Mr Brick said that the British Government’s policy favouring “high cube” trailiers was “out of kilter” with the rest of Europe and said they would “find themselves confined to the UK market.”

He concluded by saying that neither the National Roads Authority or the taxpayer would thank them “for whacking on the extra cost” if the height restriction was increased. In any case, “nobody heard of 5.3 metre trucks when this project was designed.”
Brick’s comments have provoked ire from the Transport Umbrella Group. Chairman Jerry Kiersey in a recent letter to the ‘Irish Times’ said: “I am astounded at statements which he (Brick) and others within Dublin City Council and the National Roads Authority are putting on this issue.”

He continued: “Trucks 5.3 metres high do not exist here or in the UK, nor have w e ever looked for them. We are seeking an internal height which will allow trucks of 4.9 metres through. These trucks are and have been a fact on our roads and those of our nearest and biggest trading partner for the past 20 years.”
The Transport Umbrella Group claims that Dublin City Council engineers have highlighted tunnel heights in the UK built before the motorway revolution in the 1950s in its efforts to justify the 4.65 metre restriction at the Dublin Port Tunnel. “They have ignored post 1950 tunnels such as the three on the M25 and others throughout the UK,” Mr Kiersey stated. He continued: “I have direct from the UK Highways Department, its guidelines on tunnel heights which contradict Mr Brick’s position.”

Similarly, Dublin City Council engineers have highlighted tunnels throughout the EU to support their case, while ignoring others such as the EU-funded Oresund tunnel which links Denmark to Sweden, which has an internal height of 6.1 metres and was completed in 2000.
The Transport Umbrella Group also disputes Dublin City Council’s claims that less than two per cent of port traffic will be unable to use the tunnel. Indeed Dublin City Council seems unsure of the validity of their own figures.

In December the Transport Umbrella group met with Dublin’s Director of Traffic, Owen Keegan and Dublin City Council’s deputy engineer in charge of the project, Tim Brick. “They agreed to review the internal design of the tunnel to see if the height of trucks able to use it could be increased from 4.65 metres to 4.9 metres and also to conduct a new survey of all truck heights monitoring all three access/excess points.”

The Transport Umbrella Group believes that a height clearance of 4.9 metres would allow any truck capable of travelling by motorway within Ireland and the UK to use the Dublin Port Tunnel. “This would seem a reasonable aim as the tunnel’s stated purpose is to carry trucks to and from the port to the M50,” Kiersey stated.
He added: “If this does not happen an alternative route will have to be designated for taller trucks and this route will inevitably become a rat-run for all trucks seeking to avoid paying tolls at the Westlink.”
However, Dublin City Council is of a different opinion. The council’s website categorically states: “It has been suggested that over height HGVs will have unrestricted access to the city’s road network, thereby undermining one of the fundamental objectives of the Dublin Port Tunnel, the removal of port HGV traffic from the city’s road network.”

“It is important to state that over height HGVs will have only limited alternative surface access available to them. A city wide HGV management strategy will be introduced to accompany the opening of the Dublin Port Tunnel. This will place severe restrictions on when and where HGVs will be permitted to operate within the city.”

We can only wait on the results of Dublin City Council’s new survey of port traffic to determine exactly how many trucks per day won’t fit in the tunnel. The Transport Umbrella Group is confident the figure will far exceed the 2 per cent figure currently doing the rounds.