THE creation of a national distribution park in Clondalkin, with a rail link to Dublin Port, is one of the most strategic projects planned in Ireland. It is also probably the largest single planning application to be lodged in the history of the State.
Work on the £100 million-plus project has been proceeding in secret for the past two years. Only yesterday was it all revealed when the developers finally made their planning application to South Dublin County Council, with a detailed environmental impact study (EIS).
The idea of locating a rail freight terminal in the vicinity of the M50 "C-ring" motorway on the edge of the city is not new. It was suggested by the Dublin Transportation Initiative (DTI) in 1994 and strongly endorsed by the Docklands Task Force in its report last year.
What's new is that a site of 186 acres has now been acquired for the scheme by an international businessman, Mr Harry Dobson, who is planning to develop it in partnership with CIE. Mr Dobson, a Scot, has diamond mining interests in Canada and some property here.
As well as a freight handling facility, he plans to install a major warehousing, light industry and high-tech office scheme on the site, with a total floor area of 2.5 million square feet, all set in landscaped grounds between the Dublin-Cork railway line and the Grand Canal.
This "ancillary development" would provide 1.94 million square feet of warehousing in five very large, high-bay buildings beside the railway and numerous others of varying sizes, as well as 538,900 square feet of office-type buildings and 26,900 square feet of light industrial units.
It is estimated by the project team that the scheme would create at least 5,000 jobs on-site when fully completed - in an area which is acknowledged as one of the worst unemployment blackspots in Dublin and which has so far seen very little industrial development
But its city-wide benefits are equally significant, because the proposed freight handling facility offers the opportunity for freight operators to deliver containers to Dublin Port by rail, via the Phoenix Park tunnel, without having to enter the heavily-congested inner city road network.
Two huge gantries, each over 135 feet high, would load and unload the containers. There would be seven rail sidings on the site, running parallel with the Dublin-Cork line, and provision is also being made for a commuter railway station to facilitate those working on the site.
At present, the Phoenix Park tunnel is largely disused, except for freight and special trains carrying supporters to GAA matches in Croke Park. Poor signalling and jointed track means that traffic on the route must travel well below the standard speed on other railway lines.
As part of the plan, the entire route from the Dublin-Cork line to the port, via the Phoenix Park tunnel and Cabra junction, will be upgraded through the installation of modern signalling and continuous welded rail. This will enable freight trains to make the journey in 25 minutes.
It would also enable Iarnrod Eireann to re-route its Arrow commuter service linking Kildare with Dublin into Connolly Station, rather than using Heuston as the terminus. In theory, it would even allow rail passengers to travel from Belfast to Cork without changing trains.
The project team envisages that there will be one container train per hour in each direction between the distribution centre and Dublin Port. The service would operate 24 hours a day, catering mainly for freight traffic with its origin or destination outside the "C-ring" motorway.
The proposed facility could remove up to 1,500 heavy goods vehicles (HGV), or juggernauts, from the city's streets, notably the Liffey Quays. Forecasts in the EIS, based on computerised traffic models, suggest that HGV traffic on Custom House Quay would be cut by 21 per cent.
The site is particularly well located for the proposed development. It is sandwiched between the Dublin-Cork line to the north and the Grand Canal, close to the "C-ring" motorway. It also lies between the N4 Galway road and the N7, which leads to Cork and Limerick.
The strategic location of the site at Clonburris was spotted by estate agent Fintan Gunne, who also developed the concept of exploiting the rail link to Dublin Port. It is based on the successful Daventry rail freight terminal near Junction 18 on the Ml motorway in England.
The EIS describes the site as "a tenuous sliver of semi-derelict pasture land `cheek by jowl' with the incompatible activities of encroaching urban development," subject to trespass, vandalism and other anti-social behaviour. According to Mr Gunne, it is "pie-bald pony country".
Located to the south-west of Neillstown, it is currently zoned as open space and agriculture in the county development plan. It is, therefore, a "material contravention" of the plan, requiring the support of three-quarters of South Dublin councillors to win planning permission.
This meant that the project team - headed by architects O'Dowd O'Herlihy Horan - had to prepare a full, rather than an outline, planning application as well as an EIS. It includes 300 architectural drawings and an equivalent number of engineering drawings.
The scheme is contingent on the completion of a long-planned £5 million extension to the Fonthill road, which would link the N4 and the N7, making the site fully accessible. Assuming that all goes according to plan, the mammoth facility could be operational in two years.
The project team is at pains to stress that it is not being put forward as an alternative to the controversial Dublin Port Tunnel. This £130 million route, soon to be voted on by the City Council, would cater for the bulk of ro-ro (roll-on, roll-off) traffic entering and leaving the port.
The Clondalkin facility is targeted primarily at lo-lo (load-on, load-off) freight traffic going through the port, which is expected to increase by 37 per cent by the year 2006. If this traffic was to go by road, rather than rail, it would clearly exacerbate the HGV problem in the city centre.
The EIS, which was coordinated by a leading planning consultant, Dr Brian Meehan, concedes that there would be a significant increase in traffic on roads in the vicinity of thee Clonburris site.
Altogether, it is projected that the distribution centre will generate a two-way flow of 1,500 vehicles per hour during the morning peak - 200 HGVs and the rest accounted for by car trips. Negative effects could be relieved by imposing HGV bans and traffic calming measures on "sensitive" roads.
On the plus side, the EIS says the scheme would facilitate greater use of the Grand Canal as an amenity resource. It would also be compatible with local objectives, including the development of the designated Lucan/Clondalkin town centre site.
In addition, it would mean that the North Wall railway marshalling yard - now physically removed from Dublin Port - could be released for development. Occupying a site of 40 acres, halfway between the Custom House and the Point Depot, the significance of this is obvious.
Architect Jim Horan, who has worked on the project for the past six months, is excited about its implications. "A new level of distribution logistics is needed in Ireland in terms of how we organise our import/export trade - and that's what the NDP will do."
