Future generations will see the Dublin Port Tunnel as a milestone project,writes John Fitzgerald
The Irish Times editorial "Tunnel vision" (Wednesday, May 15th) is misleading. It offers a contentious notion as fact - that having ever larger vehicles on the streets of our towns and cities is green and environmentally friendly!
That is presented without a shred of evidence to back it up.
Here at Dublin City Council, with our partners in the National Roads Authority, we do have a "tunnel vision". It is of a capital city returned to its citizens in 2005, the city centre no longer slashed in two by streams of heavy vehicles travelling up the south quay, and down the north quay, a quieter city where pedestrians and cyclists can cross O'Connell Bridge to and from our main thoroughfare without risking life and limb.
Hauliers and business will benefit as the journey times for cargoes from Dublin Port to the M50 ring road will be reduced from the current average of 40 minutes.
This is one of the largest and most challenging civil engineering projects in Europe today.
We are proud of it and the people who are carrying out the work. However, it is hidden 24 metres below ground level and doesn't catch the public imagination the way visible projects, like the Spire and Quality Bus Corridors, do.
Of course, there is inconvenience at present, and we are grateful for the patience and support of Dubliners. Future generations will recognise Dublin Port Tunnel as a milestone project of the 21st century like the electricity generating station at Ardnacrusha in the 1930s.
The tunnel has been designed to best international standards. With a physical height clearance of 4.9 metres, and an operational limit (to protect against flapping or loose loads) of 4.65 metres, it is higher than tunnel standards applying in countries such as France, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Austria, Italy and the Netherlands.
Most European countries, including virtually all of our EU partners, limit truck heights to between 4 metres and 4.5 metres. The height of the Dublin Port Tunnel is significantly in excess of this and can accommodate all trucks that would be able to travel through most continental European countries.
We don't believe the "raise the height" argument stands up to the most basic cost-benefit analysis.
There has been serious misinformation about the number of "oversize" lorries now travelling through Dublin Port, which will not fit into the tunnel when it opens in 2005. The facts are much more reassuring.
Dublin Port Company, which manages the port, has measured nearly half a million trucks using its main entrance since last October.
More than 99 per cent are below the tunnel height, with only 0.6 per cent above this. Even if the figure of 3 per cent which is put about by the haulage industry is accepted, the case for raising the height of the tunnel at huge expense is not supported by the facts.
The extra capital cost, plus the delay in getting the tunnel working for the sake of a maximum of 300 journeys per day out of an estimated 9,000, is not justified.
We accept that when the tunnel opens there will be issues to be addressed about the general management of goods vehicles in the city centre. A citywide strategy will be subject to a comprehensive consultation process with all interested parties before it is finalised.
The suggestion that ever-higher lorries will be built demanding adjustments to the heights of almost every road tunnel throughout Europe defies common sense.
Are the Austrians, Swiss and Italians going to rebuild all their tunnels to meet the requirements of British and Irish road hauliers, or are truck heights going to standardise at international best-practice levels? We all know the answer to that. Anybody who takes road safety and the environment seriously cannot just assert that we must welcome bigger vehicles on some vague environmental grounds.
We must question the motives of those who seek the freedom of our roads and streets for ever-larger vehicles without sufficient consideration for the rights of other citizens.
A point for your leader writer. King Canute - referred to in your editorial - was not attempting to hold back the tide. He was showing his courtiers that even kings couldn't hold back the tide. We believe the citizens of Dublin recognise that we need to finish this project as soon as possible and that even the haulage industry will come around to that view. The tide is running in our favour.
• John Fitzgerald is Dublin City Manager