TRAFFIC IN Dublin was brought to a standstill for much of yesterday afternoon following the closure of the northbound side of the Dublin Port Tunnel for almost five hours due to its first fire during operations.
A tyre on a lorry caught fire in the northbound lane at 12.30pm. Although the fire was described as small by the National Roads Authority (NRA), Dublin Fire Brigade were automatically alerted by the tunnel's alarm system. Meanwhile, the tunnel operator's response team had already put emergency procedures into action.
Vehicles driving in front of the disabled lorry were permitted to leave the tunnel. But motorists caught behind the lorry were instructed by loud speakers to leave their cars and exit though one of 19 evacuation doors from where they were escorted to an operations building.
Several motorists complained that safety announcements were confusing and difficult to hear. A spokesman for the NRA said evacuation had taken place quickly and safely, but admitted that there were lessons to be learned.
"This was the first live evacuation of the tunnel and lessons will have to be learned. These very well could be lessons in relation to the loudspeaker system, that will be assessed, but the main thing is that people knew to get out."
The southbound side of the tunnel was also evacuated and was closed until around 3pm. However, the northbound side did not reopen until shortly before 5pm, causing severe traffic congestion in the city, according to Conor Faughnan of the AA.
"There were major traffic problems particularly in the north of the city which were compounded by an accident on Dorset Street and the lifting of the HGV ban."
Mr Faughnan accepted that safety was the first priority but questioned why the tunnel was closed for so long.
"A relatively simple incident led to the closure of both bores of the tunnel for several hours; the operators have to find a way to manage these incidents better."
The tunnel has been subject to closures recently due to what the NRA have described as systems failures. However, this is the first time there has been a fire in the tunnel while it was carrying traffic.
