Reply To: Port Tunnel

The problem of the port tunnel is extremely simple..

Jimmy Quinn and de boys of the Irish Road Haulage Association chose to ignore the existence of the tunnel.
They possibly hoped that the corporation would back down from the banning of trucks through the City Centre.

The Corporation commissioned the Truck Height study which was delivered in November 2002. It found that 97% of all Trailers (all cab designs in Europe will fit) fit into the tunnel. Of those 3% that won’t they are also restricted from use in all EU countries except the UK.

Now lets examine what €270m would buy:

2700 hi-specification trailors for use in all 15 states

Two state of the art deepsea fast ferries that would travel from Rosslare to Cherbourg in ten hours and in all weathers.

This would have two effects, firstly Rossalre could develop as Irelands premier continental RO-RO port. taking pressure from the overcrowded Dublin Port

IT would mean that Ireland is no longer dependent on UK roads which as highlighted in the National Spatial Strategy is beyond our control. The authors of the ancilliary transport study were highly concerned about this.

€270m would build a lot of civic spaces