Madam, - Dublin City Council have announced their traffic management arrangements for when the Dublin Port Tunnel opens.
They say that trucks using the Dublin Port Tunnel will add just 3 per cent more peak time traffic in each direction at the West Link toll plaza.
Based on current daily figures of approximately 90,000 vehicles on this section of the M50, it means approximately 100 extra trucks will be travelling in each direction, to and from the Dublin Port Tunnel at peak hours, according to the council's press release. The whole raison d'etre for building the tunnel was to take a supposed 9,000 trucks a day off the city centre quays, as advertised by the council on the hoardings surrounding the tunnel works.
This raises two questions. Are we expected to believe that the other displaced 8,800 trucks won't have any impact on the already full to capacity M50?
Is the tunnel cost of €1 billion really good value for removing just 200 HGVs from the city centre during peak hours? - Yours, etc,
FINTAN CASSIDY, Annadale Crescent, Marino, Dublin 9.