The centre of Cork city is being dug up by the local authority for a new main drainage scheme. The fear was that doing this in a busy city in the middle of the day would cause traffic chaos on a level that would be new even to Corkonians.
Remarkably, Cork Corporation has scheduled its works programme in such a way that, despite severe traffic restrictions, a flow has been maintained and traffic is moving, albeit at a slower pace.
One might have expected more road rage than usual - and there is plenty of it in Cork - but, if anything, it may be even calmer on the streets.
Perhaps the answer is that the £120 million drainage scheme aims to clean up the River Lee. Currently, sewage and untreated water is dumped into the river at the rate of 13 million gallons daily.
The result of the new scheme, says the corporation, will be a pristine Lee, one that the people of Cork will be able to use once again as a natural amenity. The diminished salmon run will be restored and Cork people will be able to swim near the city quays as they used to.
All this is expected to happen when the scheme has been completed by 2002. By then, a new treatment plant will have opened in the lower harbour area. The sewage and other effluent will be pumped directly to it for treatment and on its journey it will leave the river unscathed.
The message has reached the public and the hope of a better tomorrow has lured the people into acquiescence.
But there is another factor. Digging up practically an entire city-centre almost in one go is something most local authorities would be loath to do, even when the promise is that the gains will outweigh the pains.
This dig was planned because the corporation had an ace up its sleeve. The ace was that a tunnel under the Lee would be open in time to ease the traffic congestion created by the dig. That's what has happened. That's why what could have been a disruption of massive proportions has been avoided. The Jack Lynch Tunnel was opened on June Ist after a ceremony at the end of May attended by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, schoolchildren, bands, flagwavers and members of an enthusiastic public.
Initially, there was criticism of the large expenditure needed to achieve a small reduction in journey time. Now that it has been in use, taximen say the criticism was misplaced. They say they are getting to fares faster, cutting the time of the return journey and doing more business. The consensus is that the new tunnel is working and making a huge difference.
And this in the middle of hacking out the equivalent of sections of O'Connell Street in Dublin, Eyre Square in Galway, or the Ennis Road in Limerick.
Statistics on the tunnel have yet to be analysed. Nevertheless, the indications are that, on average, 28,000 vehicles a day are using the facility and sometimes the figure exceeds 29,000.
Of course it hasn't taken long for the anecdotes to flourish. Before it was officially opened to traffic, the local authority organised a walk day for the people of Cork in the tunnel. No cars - bring the children, have bunting and festivities, enjoy a stroll under the Lee - something about which to tell the grandchildren.
One woman went with a friend who wasn't sure about walking under water. Midway through the tunnel, she spotted water on one of the carriageways. It could be only one thing, she thought, the tunnel was leaking already. She couldn't wait to get to the other side and back to terra firma.
A false alarm, said project engineer Finbarr Long. As part of the finishing touches the tunnel had been hosed down to remove debris. What the terrified woman had witnessed was a puddle like any puddle on any road that hadn't dried up. "I can assure you it's not leaking," Mr Long said.