An underground metro for Dublin could be built in less than a year for €3.4 billion or less, if 24-hour tunnelling, shorter consultation periods and a new Dublin Metro Bill were introduced, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, said last night. Sorcha Crowley reports.
The original Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) estimate of €4.8 billion for a 12 km metro from Dublin Airport to the city centre has been revised down to €3.4 billion, a saving of €1.4 billion, after pressure from the Minister.
The revised figure includes a construction cost of €1. 5 billion, a saving of €700 million on the original construction cost.
"The Dublin metro is back on the horizon and agenda," said Mr Brennan. "The Government will now consider this fresh information and decide how to proceed," he said. The Minister received advice on the project from the president of the Madrid metro, Prof Manuel Melis Maynar.
"The Government asked me to look at the Madrid situation and I was very impressed with what I saw," said Mr Brennan.
He warned however that if Dublin was going to build the metro Spanish style, it would come at a cost. "This won't be done without some pain and that pain is the loss of the luxury of a consultation period. We want the two and a half years period to be brought down to eight months," he said.
"Issues of Environmental Impact Studies, Rights of Appeal, Compulsory Purchase Orders, house ownership and 24-hour tunnelling will be addressed in a Dublin Metro Bill," said Mr Brennan.
The Minister admitted the Bill would entail a massive legal and political battle but said that if they won, it would open up new possibilities for other infrastructure projects around Ireland.
The RPA analysed the Madrid metro and applied the same savings to the Dublin metro project.
They revised the line to take a shorter route and used the Spanish idea of having all stations the same to save money.
Mr Brennan also said that if the Spanish government could have a metro built nine months after their decision was made, Ireland could do the same. "From the decision date to the sod turning, took the Spaniards nine months but would take two and a half years here. The RPA have been asked if they can crunch that down to one year or less," he said.
Supporting Mr Brennan's view that the metro can be built faster and cheaper, Prof Maynar said Dublin had excellent soil, wide streets and excellent engineers for a metro. But Dublin did have a problem with property ownership, he said.
"If you own a house here, you own down to the centre of the earth. In Spain, after a gap of 10 metres deep, we give 20 metres for public facilities such as metros and then you own the rest below that," said Prof Maynar.
The Irish system of tunnelling for 8-9 hours and then stopping was also an obstacle, he said.