Height of Shannon tunnel to be same as Dublin, at 4.65 metres

The planned €100 million tunnel under the River Shannon will be the same height as the controversial Dublin Port Tunnel.

The tunnel is part of the €350 million Limerick city bypass. It will be 900 metres long and will have two dual carriageways. Limerick County Council has published the compulsory purchase order and accompanying environmental impact statement for the project. The documents confirm the tunnel is the same height as the Dublin Port Tunnel with a clearance height of 4.9 metres and an operational height clearance of 4.65 metres. The deputy vice-president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, Mr Séan Murtagh, said yesterday that the National Roads Authority "is repeating the same mistake as it did with the Dublin Port Tunnel by setting the height of the Shannon tunnel too low. It is very short-sighted when trends are going towards higher vehicles".

The NRA's head of project management and engineering, Mr Eugene O'Connor, said the height of the Shannon tunnel "at a minimum, accords with and exceeds tunnel height that is normally provided in many other countries". Citing an international study on tunnel heights, Mr O'Connor said the Shannon tunnel "would equal or exceed the height of similar tunnels in 10 of the 12 countries surveyed.

"Tunnel clearances are not treated in the same manner as bridge clearances because of the very large cost of tunnel projects.

"Tunnels are extremely expensive pieces of infrastructure, many multiples of the cost of equivalent lengths of road or bridge."