Sir, - Your leading article, "Jack Lynch Tunnel" (May 22nd) raised questions about why large-scale, infrastructural projects trundle along at such a slow pace. The article refers to much-needed projects and the Dublin Port Tunnel was singularly mentioned.
During the public enquiry into the DPT there was no media coverage of issues relating to the proposed location and adverse environmental impacts around the northern portals. Local politicians, worried about environmental issues and loss of votes, had rejected the original position recommended by the "experts" and shifted the portals northwards to the edge of the city boundary. Consultants were then forced to justify the political decision with a new design and EIS.
Just when politicians felt that votes were secure, turmoil was created in the re-drawing of constituency boundaries. TDs, who voted for the portal relocation, will lose some of the Drumcondra electorate who would benefit from the tunnel. The same TDs will gain some of the Fingal electorate who would suffer from deterioration in air quality etc. Not surprisingly, some of these politicians, fearing an incensed electorate, appeared at the public enquiry seeking yet a further re-location of the portals. Others have been unscrupulously promising false millions in EU compensation on the local council election trail. What a sad prospect for infrastructural planning when major decisions about design are being made by fickle local politicians representing a shifting electorate!
Leaving aside such fundamental questions about the actual location of the port, how have the citizens of Dublin City judged the DPT? The answer is quite clear: the environmental quality of the northside few is to be sacrificed for the alleged good of the whole. In adopting this view, the public and the national media have succumbed to a slick Dublin Corporation propaganda machine that masquerades as public consultation.
What a pity that the citizens and the media are not fully acquainted with the real facts. If the Irish Times map of the DPT (December 1997 and later) was accurate, it would reveal the major flaw in the project, i.e. downgrading of the M1. Yes, the main traffic artery between Dublin City and its airport and Belfast would be downgraded to a single slip lane in each direction. This downgrading is proposed at the northern portal position and would almost certainly cause a gridlocked bottleneck. Traffic backing up on the M1 is also likely to block the entrance to the proposed tunnel.
The implications for the connection between Dublin and Belfast, as the second capital in the island, is worrying, especially considering the future for inter-city trade links and the peace process. What other major European city would downgrade its main road to the airport?
The citywide benefits of a port tunnel must be acknowledged but it should commence in open space where city-bound traffic can freeflow past the portals. What a pity the design became a local political football and so much time has trundled by without factual media coverage of the issues involved. - Yours, etc., Fergus Clancy,
Santry, Dublin 9.