RESIDENTS OF the historic Railway Estate in Inchicore, Dublin, claimed yesterday they were being “railroaded” by Iarnród Éireann’s plan for a Dart underground link between Heuston station and the Docklands area.
John Beck, chairman of Inchicore on Track, the residents’ new campaign group, said the plan – to cost €2 billion – was being “pushed through without any proper consultation”.
“The Iarnród Éireann plan will see the heritage estate, ironically built for railway workers in the 1840s, turned into Dublin’s largest 24-hour a day construction site. At its centre there will be a hole the size of a football pitch,” he said.
Inchicore on Track commissioned London-based tunnelling consultants OTB Engineering to review the proposal, which would involve excavating the local football pitch to provide an entry point for the tunnel boring machines.
The report recommends relocating the construction works a few hundred metres to an Iarnród Éireann works site, saying it would be “completely unreasonable” for the construction to be carried out in a residential area.
A spokesman for Iarnród Éireann said the site for the tunnel portal in Inchicore had been selected to avoid demolition of any houses, that the construction work would be temporary, and that local people would benefit from having a new station.