NRA chief says port tunnel to open soon

The Dublin Port Tunnel is expected to finally open within 14 weeks and is not leaking, the National Roads Authority has said.

Speaking on Morning Ireland yesterday, the chief executive officer of the NRA, Fred Barry, said they expected to open the tunnel within 13 or 14 weeks.

Construction work on the tunnel has been completed and it is now being put through safety checks. Training is also to begin for gardaí and the fire services.

"We are in the final stage," Mr Barry said.

"We are testing the safety control systems, making sure they are working as an integrated system and getting the operators and the gardaí and fire services all trained up to actually operate the tunnel."

He denied that there are any problems with leaks in the tunnel.

"It's extraordinary that people ever thought that you could build a tunnel under water without having leaks during construction, but they were dealt with during the construction," he said.

"There are no leak issues on the tunnel," he said.

Mr Barry said the NRA would not yet be giving a definite date for the opening of the tunnel.

"I think we all know from control systems that you test something and it works and you test two of them and you've got to juggle something around," he said.

"It is just the nature of it. So rather than saying we're going to open on a specific month, we're saying it's going to open later this year," Mr Barry said.