Tunnel Vision

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan has drawn the wrath of the road haulage industry following an announcement that he is considering imposing a height restriction of 4.65 metres on all heavy goods vehicles. He is in for one hell of a battle, writes John Loughran.

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan's admission that he is considering introducing a height restriction of 4.65 metres on all heavy goods vehicles - coincidently the same height restriction that will be in place at Dublin Port Tunnel when it is completed - smacks of bolting the stable door when the horse is gone.

When the irresistible force meets the immoveable object something has to give. Either the Department of Transport reviews the design of Dublin Port Tunnel, with a view to increasing its height restriction, or some 900 "super trucks" will continue to trundle through the streets of the capital on a daily basis.
The frustrating truth is that this whole fiasco could have been avoided if the haulage industry was consulted at the design stage, or at the very least before work commenced on the project. The haulage industry has been shouting long and hard ever since it was announced that the tunnel would have a height restriction of 4.65 metres. Its pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

In the past seven years ferry operators operating out of Dublin port have spent almost as much as it will cost to build the Dublin Port Tunnel - more than £400 million - on upgrading their fleet.
Every vessel operating out of Dublin port has at least a five-metre deck clearance. These companies are operating in the real commercial world. They have clearly identified customer needs and reacted accordingly.

Jimmy Quinn of the Irish Road Haulage Association says that the ferry operators and the haulage industry are operating in the real commercial world. "The ferry operators have seen in their wisdom to specify at least a five metre deck height. The Port Tunnel won't mirror or reflect the everyday life of the docks and that is peculiar."

Contrast this position with the Dublin Port Tunnel debacle. The spin-doctors would lead us to believe that the height clearance is more than adequate because it is higher than most tunnels to be found in mainland Europe. True, the clearance at Dublin Port Tunnel will be higher than most European tunnels, but these tunnels were built in an era - either side of the Second World War - when so-called 'super trucks' or double-deck trailers were only to be found in the in the realms of a Flash Gordon movie.

The plan fact of the matter is that Dublin Port Tunnel was designed more than a decade ago, when a 4.65 metre clearance was more than sufficient. Sadly, this design has not been modified to take account of the changing world we live in.
Quinn said recently that the tax-payer deserved value for money in the construction of Dublin Port Tunnel and this would be best served if every truck that uses the port, can fit into the tunnel.
He also said that the tunnel would have a working life of 100 years. The tunnel should be designed and built to meet the future requirements of the end-user (the haulier) rather than persisting with a design that is already 10 years out of date.

Attempts have been made to play down the fact that a significant number of trucks won't fit into the tunnel when it is eventually opened. A recent survey found that only two per cent of vehicles using the port won't be able to use the tunnel. Quinn believes a certain amount of "fudging' is taking place to deflect attention away from the real issue - that the design of the tunnel is fundamentally flawed.

" We are not happy with the two per cent non-compliance figure that the Department has produced. We don't believe it is exhaustive or accurate. We don't believe the survey was taken at all the dock exits and we feel the figure is diluted. We are going by what the shipping lines are telling us," he commented.
In certain sections of the media a suggestion has been floated that "super trucks" should be banned for road safety and environmental reasons. It would also solve the tunnel conundrum. Quinn believes this is a "knee-jerk" reaction and has been thrown out to muddy the waters.

"It is a figment of peoples' imagination to suggest that these vehicles are not safe. It is pathetic to think that anybody would seek to cancel the advantage an exporter may gain by using high-cube vehicles. It beggars belief," he commented.
He continued: "There are literally thousands of these high-cube trailers on the roads, both here and in Britain. There is not one shred of evidence to suggest that they are not safe."
He poured scorn on the notion that these trailers weren't environ-mentally friendly as has been suggested in some quarters. "These trailers can move twice as much goods in the one movement, reducing the number of vehicle movements needed to get the goods from A to B. So how could that not be friendly to the enviro-nment.”

Quinn is pinning his hopes for a favourable resolution to the issue on a meeting that took place between the Transport Umbrella Group (TUG) and Junior Minister at the Department of Transport, Dr. Jim McDaid. Dr McDaid has been assigned the task of gathering all the relevant information before reporting back to Transport Minister Seamus Brennan.

He concluded: "The TUG represents a very broad spectrum of people working at the docks, including container hauliers, shipping line owners, road hauliers, car-transporter operators. We pointed out that we need to be able access Dublin's road network in the fastest possible time, and that is best served by using the tunnel. We also stressed the importance of keeping in step with what is happening in Britain who are still our largest trading partner by road because of our proximity."

Watch this space.