Dublin’s hgv traffic plan

Dublin City Council’s long awaited HGV traffic management plan for the city was approved by councillors at a highly charged meeting of the council on April 10. However, the plan could yet be destined for the courts.

After years of waiting, Dublin City Council HGV traffic management plan for the city was finally approved by the city councillors, but before it was passed, the councillors delivered what could be best described as a hammer blow to hauliers, which could ultimately end up in the courts.

City councillors voted to introduce a ban on five-axle heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) in the city centre from 7am to 7pm in the zone from the Royal Canal to the Grand Canal when the Port Tunnel opens later in the year.
Despite the fact that the National Roads Authority had told the council that it was unreasonable to force HGVs to travel the full length of the already congested motorway in the short term, councillors went ahead with the voting to close all access routes to Dublin Port by the start of next year.
The ban will affect about two-thirds of lorries which are currently accessing the port. Trucks which are too tall for the Port Tunnel will have to access the port outside the ban hours while trucks which are delivering goods to businesses in the city centre will be given special permits.

The council has also agreed to discuss the possibility of reviewing the proposed hours of operation to ensure the maximum use of the Port Tunnel. The majority of councillors were in favour of the ban which the council hopes will improve the quality of life for people in the city centre as well as easing traffic congestion.
They did however emphasise the need for strict Garda enforcement of the plan. "Enforcement is the key to its success," said Fianna Fail Cllr Julia Carmichael. "If we don't get that right, this is a complete waste of time."
Brendan O'Brien, Head of Technical Services at the council, who addressed the meeting said that CCTV coverage would be extended past the cordoned-off areas and that a database of permit holders of five-axle trucks would be given to gardai to help enforce the ban. Councillor Christy Burke (SF) called for electronic surveillance to help gardai catch ban-breakers.

As a result of the lorries travelling to and from Dublin Port will be able to use the key city access roads from the northside and southside until the New Year, when these routes will be closed off to all trucks.
It had been widely touted in the mainstream media that the council had decided to recommend that the ban on HGVs should be phased in over two years, pending completion of upgrades to the M50.
The compromise would have allowed trucks with four axles to continue using the city centre, while vehicles with five or more axles would still be banned. The restriction would have been extended to all HGVs once barrier-free tolling was introduced on the M50 in 2008.

Sources close to Dublin City Council intimated that it had it recommended to Transport Minister, Martin Cullen, that access routes to Dublin Port via East Wall Road on the Northside and Seán Moore Road on the Southside should be maintained, until the completion of the M50 upgrade.
However, the plan as adopted by the councillors mean lorries will have to travel up the M50 and through the Port Tunnel to get to Dublin Port, which will cause mayhem on the choked motorway.

Lorries with less than five axles will be banned from the city centre and the quays on a phased basis. By that time, the council hopes the M50 upgrade will be completed and it will be able to cope with the increase in lorry traffic.
The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) is furious with the intervention of the councillors. The association says it agrees with the idea of the Port Tunnel and the removal of trucks from the city centre, but it believes the city council's planned HGV strategy is ridiculous.

Spokesman Jimmy Quinn claimed it would prevent many trucks from making deliveries to city-centre businesses and his association would be seeking legal advice on the matter immediately.
Similarly, the company that operates Dublin Port has expressed concerns about the City Council's plans for managing heavy goods vehicles once the Dublin Port Tunnel.
Dublin Port Company claims the HGV management plan will lengthen some journeys for truck drivers and push up costs for companies using the port.

It says journey times between the port and Dun Laoghaire will increase from 35 minutes at present to around two hours under the council's management strategy.
Aside from the HGV traffic management plan the IRHA is annoyed at range of issues surrounding the opening of the tunnel, judging by its recent demonstration at the East Link Bridge.
The association contends that it had a verbal agreement with the Department of Transport that hauliers would be exempted from tolls on the bridge, when the Port Tunnel opens.
The demonstration, in which upwards on 100 hauliers took part, was described as the biggest protest ever organised by the IRHA. It showed the deep level of anger that is now permeating the association, with regard to the tunnel, Dublin City Council and the Department of Transport.

Quinn summed up hauliers’ feeling when he commented: "We find ourselves at the eleventh hour with no plan and the tunnel due to open shortly. There are a huge number of issues unresolved and it is typical of the way this has been managed from the start."
The protest had as much to do with Transport Minister Martin Cullen’s pronouncement that he intends to ban so-called super trucks from the country’s roads, when the tunnel finally opens, as it had to do with tolling on the East Link Bridge.

Again, Quinn admirably summed up hauliers’ feelings when he described Minister Cullen’s plan as “absolutely idiotic”. He said the Irish government did not recognise the cost pressures road hauliers were facing, which would be increased if the larger trucks were banned.
“In the real world of business, people are being put to the pin of their collar to compete," he said.
Hauliers are also concerned about the apparent lack of planning at the facility, which is due to open in the summer.
The association says that heavy goods vehicles leaving the northbound exit of the tunnel will be forced into the right-hand lane of the M1 motorway.

They will then have to cross quickly through traffic into the left-hand lane if they want to gain access to the M50 slip road.
IRHA member Liam Brewer commented: "There's too short a distance to try and achieve that. That realisation seems to have come on the city council very, very late.
"It's going to be a very intricate, a very dangerous bit of manoeuvring to get onto the M50 / M1 junction."