This article is from page 2 of the 2006-10-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
AIRPORT Director with the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) Martin Moroney yesterday welcomed the commencement of construction work on the €349 million Shannon tunnel.
The tunnel forms part of the €349 million 10km southern bypass of Limerick city and is set to extend the catchment area for Shannon airport.
Mr Moroney told The Clare People , “It is a very, very important route and we would like to see it finished as soon as possible. The airport is suffering from bottlenecks on the roads in the Galway and Limerick directions, so news that the work has started on the tunnel is very good.”
The scheme is the largest road infrastructure project in the State outside Dublin and will be completed by 2010.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) announced that the contract for the €349 million scheme had been awarded to the Direct Route consortium, made up of Austrian company, Strabag AG; John Sisk & Son (Holdings) Limited, Lagan Holdings Limited and Roadbridge Ltd. The consortium is expected to genenate an estimated €456 million in tolls from the tunnel over the first 30 years of its operation.
In the toll scheme adopted by the NRA for the project,car drivers are to be charged €1.60 to access the tunnel, while truck drivers will have to pay €5.46.
According to a spokesman for Limerick County Council, the project is expected to be completed by 2010. The height of the Limerick tunnel is the same height as the Dublin Port Tunnel and An Bord Pleanála dismissed pleas by road hauliers to increase the height of the tunnel. The tunnel will be composed of six precast pieces, which will be built in an adjacent casting basin which will later be immersed into the river and anchored into the river bed to allow the pieces to be put in place in the dredged river site.
Limerick city mayor, Joe Leddin (Lab) has welcomed the works starting on the scheme but expressed disappointment that the road will be tolled.
“I do not object in principle to the Public Private Partnerships (PPP), but with the exchequer awash with money and motorists paying large amounts through car tax, there is no need to toll the tunnel and I would fear that a percentage of motorists would divert away from the tunnel and use the existing road network. The Jack Lynch tunnel isn’t tolled for instance,” he said.