DUBLIN PORT TUNNEL PROJECT

This project is the largest ever roads transportation project in the Republic of Ireland. The contract for construction was awarded to the Nishimatsu, Mowlem, and Irishenco consortium (NMI) in December 2000. The NMI consortium is a non-integrated joint venture; the respective parties are responsible for their individual parts of the works. The European branch of Nishimatsu, Japan, was responsible for the bored tunnelling and railway underpass. Mowlem/Irishenco Ireland, was responsible for the surface carriageways, cut and cover tunnels and complete tunnel fit out. The National Roads Authority (NRA) as part of the National Development Plan financed the project under the remit of the Department of Transport. The work on site started in June 2001.

The contract for the appointment of the Construction Supervisor went to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), with sub-consultants and they were appointed in January 2001.

Key Fact

Dublin Port Tunnel is a dual carriageway primarily for Heavy Goods Vehicles to travel between the Port, close to
the heart of the city, and the M50 C-ring, linking all the major arterial routes to Dublin
Links M1 to Dublin Port in only 6-8 minutes

• It is one of the longest urban motorway tunnel in Europe
•  The tunnel is 4.5km in length, of which 2.6km is twin bored tunnels, and 1.9km is cut-and-cover.
• Operational height clearance is 4.65m, the actual height of the tunnel is 4.9metres.
• The twin tubes are linked every 250 metres by pedestrian cross passages, and every 1,000 metres by vehicle cross passages, providing emergency exits, from incident tunnel to non-incident tunnel.
• The Dublin Port Tunnel is the largest ever civil engineering project in Ireland; only the electrification dam on the River Shannon at Ardnacrusha in the 1920s comes near.
• It was joint winner (with the New York World Trade Centre Recovery Effort) of the 2003 International Fleming Award for novel geotechnical solutions in its construction.
• The Project planted 40,000 trees and shrubs.