THE NUMBER of large lorries using the Dublin Port Tunnel has halved in the last two years according to figures from Dublin City Council.
The tunnel, which brings vehicles from the M1 to Dublin Port avoiding the city centre, opened in December 2006 and has had a steady increase in use by four- and five-axle lorries to a peak of 7,044 a day in August 2007.
The number of lorries taking the tunnel has since declined sharply to an average of just 3,582 a day in August 2009.
Five-axle lorries taking the tunnel fell by 42 per cent from 5,246 a day in August 2007 to 3,013 last August. The reduction in the numbers of four-axle vehicles using the tunnel has been greater still with 1,797 a day taking the route at the peak, down to 569 – a drop of almost 70 per cent.
However, the decline in use of the tunnel is not a result of large lorries taking to the city streets. Dublin City Council said traffic counts at North Wall Quay, East Wall Road, and Seán Moore Road, the three routes lorries would previously have used to reach the port, revealed a reduction of up to 96 per cent in five-axle vehicles and 83 per cent in four-axle vehicles using the city streets since the opening of the route up to last September.
This decline coincides with the council’s ban on five-axle lorries in the city from 7am to 7pm.
However the reduction has also been recorded during night time hours and the prohibition does not apply to four-axle vehicles which can use the city streets at any time.
The reduction appeared to be a “reflection of the economic and particularly construction downturn”, the council said.