The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has given the strongest indication yet that he will not sanction an increase in the clearance height within the Dublin Port Tunnel. Tim O'Brien reports.
Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, the Minister said the chief constraint in increasing the height from 4.65 metres to 4.9 metres was not the cost or the delays, but the safety issues involved.
Mr Brennan revealed that "all three bodies" involved - the National Roads Authority (NRA), the Dublin City Council and the builders Nishimatsu Mowlem Irishenco - have warned him they would not take responsibility for safety in the tunnel if the road was lowered.
Earlier this year, after studying a number of consultants' reports on the issue, the Minister asked the contractors to give him a final price on the work and a timescale for any possible delays.
"It is €70 million and seven months," he revealed yesterday, adding that he would expect to announce a final decision on the project before he goes on annual holidays at the beginning of August.
Mr Brennan said what had been proposed was to lower the "roadway floor" within the tunnel, in a move which would necessitate the traffic lanes getting closer together.
The Minister had hoped that in getting an extra 10 inches by lowering the floor that the cars and trucks using the tunnel lanes would still be adequately separated from each other.
But he said "they [the contractors and the National Roads Authority] won't stand over it and neither will the city council."
While he stressed that he has not arrived at a final decision on the clearance height, he conceded his "options are narrowing".
It was, he indicated, disappointing, "particularly as we have built the height of the bridges on the M50 to five metres."
Mr Brennan conceded the height of the Dublin Port Tunnel would influence the height of the Shannon Tunnel at Limerick as well.
The issue of the Dublin Port Tunnel is now being considered in the light of an overall height restriction for lorries within the State.
"Around Europe it is "4.2 \ - the odd country has 4.7 or 4.8; 4.6 seems to be about right in the middle".
Mr Brennan indicated the announcement about the Port Tunnel would now probably be make in tandem with an announcement on a maximum height restriction for lorries entering the State.
"The Department has said these things are not connected directly, but there is a certain convenience they tell me."
Mr Brennan added: "They [the National Roads Authority and the contractor] are saying it can be done for this price but you take the safety risk.
"They have said that in writing, in black and white to my Department."