Dublin Port Tunnel

It will be called the M50, as will presumably the small stretch of M1 between the tunnel and the current M50/M1 junction, which will hopefully be upgraded by then to prioritise through traffic. Tolls will be charged for cars and bikes, whereas trucks will be free since they will not be allowed on the quays. Whether overheight trucks will be banned or the tunnel heightened we haven’t been told yet.

Calling it M50 doesnt make sense. Its not the M50 its an extension of the M1 to the port surely (???)

The M50 is supposed to be an orbital motorway; the final part will go partially underground from Sandyford to the port tunnel. The South Eastern motorway being built (sporadically) at the moment will be called the M50 until it is presumably renamed M11.

http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=50421&pt=n

There is a fresh call for an immediate investigation into whether or not the Dublin Port Tunnel is safe.

It follows the leaking of internal documents relating to its design in recent days.

One letter claims some of the design and construction work is unsafe and could pose a danger to workers and local residents.

Dublin North Central TD Finian Mc Grath wants Dublin City Council to come clean on the issue.

“I`ve been handed explosive information”, he says.

Deputy McGrath adds, “Serious flaws in the design have been highlighted. The words that I see in the confidential report are the construction being defective, and they also have major concerns in relation to leakage in the tunnel and talking about cracking and water proofing failing in certain areas”.

:rolleyes: Oh dear

Everyone gets so upset when the word “leakage” gets mentioned in relation to tunnels (remember when the Lee tunnel opened?). It’s actually normal for these things to leak – which is why pumps are installed. It’s impossible to build a perfect seal. I imagine it’s just some local politian is over-reacting to the “news” that the port tunnel will leak.

Legal action threatened against council

11 April 2006 12:31
Road hauliers have threatened to take legal action against Dublin City Council following last night’s decision to ban trucks from 7am to 7pm from next year.

City councillors last night voted to accept the council’s strategy for heavy goods vehicles.

However, the councillors also voted to introduce a complete ban on large lorries on roads around the city centre a year earlier than originally planned.

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A proposal to extend the ban to smaller trucks earlier than planned was dropped following advice from the City Manager, John Fitzgerald.

Dublin City Council’s HGV strategy, published last month, proposed banning lorries with five axles or more from a cordon around the city centre between 7am and 7pm.

This is to take effect two months after the opening of the Port Tunnel later this year.

However, it allowed for trucks to have access to Dublin Port via East Wall Road on the northside and Sean Moore Road on the southside, until the first phase of M50 upgrade works was completed in 2008. Councillors have now decided to close off these access routes for hauliers on 1 January 2007.

Councillors also wanted to extend the ban to lorries with four axles or more from March 2007. However, that amendment was dropped after Mr Fitzgerald said it was ‘completely crazy, not feasible and would cause chaos on the M50’.

Councillors discussed the HGV strategy for more than three hours last night. Many felt it was a ‘fudge’ and did not go far enough towards banning lorries from Dublin.

Others raised the issue of enforcement. Councillors said the strategy would not be worth the paper it was written on unless it was properly enforced.

I hope that the City Council do this it will add signifiacntly to the quality of the pedestrian experience between the canals. 😀

Yes usual whinge from vested interest group – what ever happened to the rights of a decent quality of life of those people working and living within the CBD – this is a badly needed part of reclaming the city, if these hauliers put a stop to it then you may as well concrete over the Liffey for them.

Why should one group get the run of the city?

Is there an actual firm opening date at this stage?

not yet TP, looking at October / November or possibly December, whenever all aspects are deemed ‘safe’ ….
practically all works seem to be finished at this stage …

like a christmas present.

Within the next 12 weeks I imagine.

other Tunnel thread

The road markings are being painted, the gantries are up and the emergency equipment has been delivered – cant be too long.

The emergency services have yet to start training.I am led to believe that this will take 6 weeks. This training was originally to start in April!

i heard someone on the radio bashing the port tunnel for the delays , but in doing so they explain a big reason behind the 5 years build.

at some point the machines were not longer allowed to do 24hour digging , and so the timetable went out the window

@Richards wrote:

The emergency services have yet to start training.I am led to believe that this will take 6 weeks. This training was originally to start in April!

200 firefighters completed training in Switzerland a week or two back. They may want to get use to the DPT enviroment but they are already trained:)

The articles in the the papers are ranting about the traffic congestion around the M50 being made worse by the opening of the Port Tunnel.

Mission Accomplished.

Wasn’t that the objective – to remove the traffic from the city centre ?

Hundreds of trucks avoid Dublin tunnel

22 December 2006 11:34
Traffic is reported to be moving again around the Point Depot roundabout in Dublin following gridlock there this morning.

Hundreds of trucks again avoided the tunnel, opting to drive along the quays and through the centre of Dublin to begin their journeys to the south, southeast and west of the country.

On RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland, Jimmy Quinn of the Irish Road Haulage Association said he was surprised that more truck drivers had not availed of the new port tunnel route.

But he said he was confident that in time they would.

When does the ban come into force?

@PVC King wrote:

When does the ban come into force?

mid february

On the nail

Hauliers predicting chaos on the M50
Monday, 19 February 2007 08:06
Hauliers are predicting chaos on the M50 with the introduction of a ban on large trucks in Dublin city centre this morning.

Heavy goods vehicles with five or more axles will be required to use the motorway and port tunnel to access Dublin Port from 7am to 7pm every day.

Garda

…and wasn’t it nice to see the quays with comparatively few hgvs this morning. Much more pleasant. Roll on the 4 axle ban!

Listening to Newstalk now, apparently the M50 is in absolute chaos

If there was less dithering:

Contract awarded for M50 barrier-free tolling
Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:20
The Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, has welcomed the announcement by the National Roads Authority that a contract has been awarded for the design, construction and operation of barrier-free tolling on the M50.

BetEire Flow is a consortium comprising of the French toll operator, Sanef, and the supplier and integrator, CS.

It will put the multi-lane free-flow tolling in place by summer 2008.

Concurrent implementation would have prevented this; in the short term reversal of the ship sailings is the only viable solution.

Removing the toll will help alright, but imo its only half the problem … merging in to a two lane motorway that is at capacity is the real problem, the 4 lanes & electronic toll by summer 08 should be sufficient i reckon although there will no doubt be continued delays where the upgraded section meets the existing layout at either end.

will have to wait till 2010, by which time we’ll need the outer ring, by which time we’ll need the eastern by-pass :rolleyes: running to stand still.

The description of the M50 as ‘Dublin’s New Main Street’ in 2000 by Brendan Williams of DIT appears not too far off the mark if traffic flows are the criterion and if the road based model is followed you are totally correct that all of the above will be required one after the other and probably sooner rather than later.

It is as if the nation is running at full tilt towards gridlock and those who bought into areas before the ‘new wonder bypasses’ such as the M50 are often the worst affected. The Port Tunnel is a visionary investment but it must be accompanied by a proper public transport network that gives people the option on whether they wish to spend hours on the M50 or not.

they may well have to row back on the ban temporarily until the works are finished, time will tell i suppose … its seems the nra would have preferred that anyway.

Its clear the m50 is just a major commuter / distributor road at this stage, its difficult to imagine the city without it though; given the original mistake of over developing small western villages in to massive suburbs while acres of prime land lay vacant inside what is now the m50.

You could equally argue that not developing these suburbs around existing public transport corridors was an equal failure.

Had the DRTS plan which was based upon the Buchanan strategy of the three large satellites been implemented both Tallaght (&Clondalkin on the same line)and Blanchardstown would have had DART at roughly the same time as the M50 opened. There appears to be nothing like a new rail line to increase plot ratios and unit numbers; the line the annoys me most is the Kildare line which given the terminus at Heuston gives no incentive for people to use beyond Hazelhatch because of the lack of a direct connection to the city centre.

The NRA may wish it were that way but ultimately the city must come first and if anything has to give it must be the ferry sailing times.

absolutely, which is why the interconnector is essential …
its not acceptable that its right at the end of ‘transport 21’ scheduled for completion by 2016 (we’ll be lucky)

while priority is given to the catch all vote getter – metro west, the benefits of which are questionable.

The ‘interconnector’ title given to the project doesn’t help either, people don’t have a clue what it is or of the benefits it would bring …

I totally agree on the name interconnector which sounds like it is something made by Wavin as opposed to a rail line that has the potential to link most of West Dublin to all of the key office districts on a single alignment.

I feel that the way that Metro west is being sold as a ‘Circle Line’ for Dublin is also flawed in that the distances involved in Dublin are so small that one proper city centre multi-modal interchange would enable rapid journey times more or less anywhere if fed by Luas-Heavy Rail interchanges elsewhere.

The timing of 2016 is almost certain to face slippage and waiting for another 10 years when projects like the Citywest extension are prioritised will not help. The western route into Spencer Dock must be prioritised as part of a wider strategy to get people from the hinterland intro the City Centre and increase the quality of Dublin City once there. To this end the Port Tunnel has been an excellent investment but you must wonder if an East West alignment from either N4 or N7 would have been a better idea in terms of direct routings for the majority of Port Traffic based upon the concentrations of Industrial facilities.

I feel that the way that Metro west is being sold as a ‘Circle Line’ for Dublin is also flawed in that the distances involved in Dublin are so small that one proper city centre multi-modal interchange would enable rapid journey times more or less anywhere if fed by Luas-Heavy Rail interchanges elsewhere.

definitely agree on this PVC …

I would also agree that an east west alignment of the port tunnel would seem more logical except that it appears its long term purpose is to complete the m50 as a ring … it is really the first leg of the eastern by-pass & it looks increasingly likely that the port will be shifted out of dublin city centre (as is should be imo) ….

Your analysis of this is spot on as it an established fact that Dublin City Councillors only agreed to the Port Tunnel on the grounds that it would not form part of a larger orbital motorway. I’m sure that the NRA have been plotting and scheming to have get this back on the agenda for a number of years and have no doubt been lobbying hard. I don’t fancy that any moves to build a €1bn tunnel to link Mount Merrion and East Point will be announced anytime soon.

The movement of Dublin Port makes perfect sense in the medium term and the existing port is served by fantastic transport links in the form of the port tunnel and rail connection as well as the proposed B1 Luas extension. What seems to be the main block is the fact that the Drogheda Port Company and not the Dublin Port Company have proposed the Bremore facility which is a pretty lame excuse.

One million trucks served by Port Tunnel
Wednesday, 27 June 2007 17:57
The one-millionth truck is due to pass through the Dublin Port Tunnel today, just six months after it opened.

New figures obtained from the National Roads Authority also show that more than 1.5m cars, trucks and buses have used the tunnel and have been kept out of the city centre since it opened last December.

There will be no prize for the one-millionth driver but the real winners appear to be city centre motorists. Since the tunnel opened six months ago, the number of trucks in Dublin City centre is down by 94%.

AdvertisementNew figures show that 13,000 vehicles are using the tunnel every day and 8,000 of these are trucks.

Despite charges of up to €12 a trip – more than 4,500 motorists are also accessing it daily.

On the downside, the final cost of the Port Tunnel, which currently stands at €750m, is being disputed.

And the Irish Road Haulage Association says that the congestion previously experienced in the city centre has now been shifted onto the M50.

That Jimmy Quinn just never stops whinging!!!!!

Best €750m ever spent!

The ‘interconnector’ title given to the project doesn’t help either, people don’t have a clue what it is or of the benefits it would bring …

Seems like someone agrees with you Peter FitzPatrick. Farewell Interconnector, hello DART Underground!

http://www.irishrail.ie/projects/dart_underground.asp

Noticed that alrigt DGF 🙂
See also new thread called ‘Dublin’s Highest Capacity Line’.
Perhaps we need just one thread called, Dart Underground, as we’re likely to be talking about it for the next ten years !!