The clearance height of the Dublin Port Tunnel could be raised by a foot for up to €30 million to facilitate larger heavy goods vehicles, the Minister for Transport revealed yesterday.
Mr Brennan said he was considering the option, which had been suggested to him by a team of consultants, as a means of addressing the concerns of industry groups who claimed the tunnel's existing clearance of 4.65 metres was too low. Speaking on an inspection of the project in Whitehall yesterday, the Minister said the Atkins report, commissioned by the Department, had yet to be finalised, although a draft version had put forward "some suggestions" about what might be done.
One proposal was to raise the tunnel by "approximately a foot" for "something between €20m and €30m".
But, the Minister said, "I don't want to be held to that figure because the NRA (National Roads Authority) and the independent consultants are presently discussing that."
He said the height increase "won't delay the project", and that a decision would be made after he received the final report "within a few weeks".
A one-foot increase in the height would only go halfway to meeting the demands of the Irish Road Haulage Association and the Dublin Port-based Transport Users' Group, which had been seeking a total clearance of 5.3 metres.
It is understood an early draft of the Atkins report found an increase to this height - of just over two feet - would cost €100 million and take a year to complete.
The Minister also defended the Railway Procurement Agency's (RPA) decision to withhold money from contractors who had failed to complete works on the Luas light rail project to the desired standard.
"If the RPA are not satisfied with some work the contractor does, then it is the RPA's duty to instruct the contractor to go back and do it properly, and if they must do that every day so be it. We have to get a quality product here . . . It does not add to the cost because that is clear from the contract."
He said both Luas and the tunnel were "broadly on time" and on budget "despite what's been said from time to time". Rejecting the suggestion that the works should have been spread out over a longer period of time, Mr Brennan said: "When we have the funds and we're ready to go, we should do the projects. I appreciate it means that the whole country looks like a building site. But at the end of these projects we will be proud of them."
The Minister was joined on the inspection by the EU Commissioner for Transport and Commission Vice-President, Ms Loyola De Palacio, who was on a two-day visit to Dublin, mainly to discuss Ireland's preparations for the EU presidency next year.
Of the Government's plans to break up Aer Rianta, and its compliance with EU state aid and competition rules, the Commissioner said: "We haven't entered into \ debate because this is a matter for subsidiarity. This is a matter for the Irish Government."
Instead, she focused her remarks on praising Irish progress in infrastructural development, and recent efforts to tackle road fatalities. "I think that at this moment Ireland can be considered an example for a lot of other European countries."
She said the impact of the penalty points system for drivers had been "very encouraging" at a time when the EU was seeking to cut road fatalities by half to 20,000 a year.
