Madam, - Recent articles and letters to your paper have given rise to some confusion concerning the costs for the Dublin Port Tunnel. No mystery should exist on such a high-profile public scheme.
The project's current budget is as follows (figures rounded):- Construction: €450 million; design and investigations: €15 million; supervision and management: €35 million; properties and surveys (surface and underground): €58 million; insurances, utilities, tolls, rates, miscellaneous: €15 million; escalation provisions: €52 million; Current budget total: €625 million.
Attempts to make comparisons with earlier proposals, for either single bore or shorter and shallower tunnel schemes, are unsound and misleading. All of the above information was freely available to any member of the public who wished to contact our office at East Wall Road. - Yours, etc.,
T. BRICK, Deputy City Engineer, Dublin City Council, Wood Quay,
Dublin 8.