Gerry Byrne
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StephenC wrote:
“The creation of a new port could relieve both Dublin and Drogheda of their port activities and all the resultant traffic problems and loss of amenity these incur.”I’m sorry but two wrongs don’t make a right. Is it fair to say that a port which may be a burden in one place is not a burden in another?
The prospect of moving Dublin Port has indeed been bandied about for years but by the same person. The PD plan was not written by Senator Morrissey but by Gerry Duggan, an engineer who had done a thesis in which he proposed relocating to Loughshinney. His idea was taken up by Frank MacDonald in the Irish Times who thought it was the greatest idea since the invention of ink. (McDonald is the same practical person who recently in the Irish Times aired the suggestion that Dublin Airport built it’s new runway in Portarlington!)
The Drogheda Port proposal is completely unneccessary as Drogheda Port has already re-located to a new wharf much closer to the mouth of the Boyne and which is miles away from Drogheda town. Bremore is instead driven by greed whereby the port is attempting to grab traffic already being handled by other East Coast ports.
And Dublin Port’s (and Dublin City’s) problems will be dramatically improved with the opening of the Port Tunnell. Also, if the Port switched to 24 hour working it could spread the existing traffic load throughout the day.
Gerry
See http://www.bremorewatch.comPS: Take a look at the following URL and decide if Balbriggan is or isn’t pretty!
http://www.irish-architecture.com/building”s_ireland/dublin/balbriggan/index.htmlAnd has anyone considered the impact of converting Dublin Port into a 24 Hour Port? The proposals for Bremore are for 24 hour working but, with the exception of Ro-Ro ferries, Dublin Port mostly works 9 – 5. That means that trucks collecting container traffic spill onto the city streets at peak hours.
Ships and hauliers work 24 hours – why not Dublin Port? A switch to 24 hour working throughout would mean that Dublin could expand by upwards of 30% without needing to reclaim a single acre from the Bay and reduce traffic congestion at the same time because the trucks are spread out over 24 hours, not 8 as at present.
Gerry ByrneI should add that Dublin Port has no plans to move anywhere. This is all a figment of the PDs imagination.
Gerry ByrneCute Panda and others who are salivating over the so-called “PD plan” for Dublin Port might like to expand their horizons a little. All this plan does is solve one perceived environmental problem by creating another (see http://www.bremorewatch.com).
In fact the PD plan is little more than a naive photoshop creation which crudely hijacked an idea from Finland where the Port of Helsinki is being shifted up the coast to Vuosaari. But there are staggering differences at Bremore (north Balbriggan) which don’t bear comparison with Senator Morrisey’s (PD) dimmer vision. For a start, there is an existing harbour structure at Voussari – an old badly polluted shipyard which is being expanded. There is nothing at Bremore where Drogheda Port has earmarked a potential port site because of deep water. An outer ring road terminates at Vousaari. Morrissey’s photoshop plan conveniently shows the proposed Dublin Outer ring road terminating at Bremore, a very wishful and not entirely accurate little piece of crystal ball gazing (the route of the outer ring road has not yet been determined – it could just as easily terminate at Drogheda – more likely).
At Vuosaari the Finns are putting in so many tunnels to protect local residents from noise and traffic that it puts the Port Tunnel in the shade (see http://www.bremorewatch.com). But Morrissey’s “plan” doesn’t advocate any of that. (His doppelganger, Gerry Duggan, who gave the PD presentation to a Dublin Bay conference I attended recently in the Gresham said that at Balbriggan we’re “used to that sort of thing”. I couldn’t believe my ears!).
There are also significant issues in area planning. A large segment to the SSW of the town has already been earmarked for commercial development but if the Bremore Port is also developed it will mean that Balbriggan is bearing far more than its fair share of this type of development.
Bremore is also an important archeological site which has not been fully excavated yet (9 local burial mounds), there’s a trout river which will be destroyed, the local coastline probably winters as many Brent geese and waders as Dublin Bay, we risk losing more sandy beaches than Dublin Bay, it’s closer to residential areas than the PDs like to pretend … I could go on and on.
See http://www.bremorewatch.com for more details.
Gerry Byrne
