Pier D at Dublin airport to open this weekend

Dublin airport is to begin the phased opening of its €120 million Pier D on Sunday next, with six of the planned 12 new boarding gates opening for passenger traffic.

The new pier is to be connected to the existing terminal building by a dramatic, curved 350 metre "skybridge" which will provide passengers with bird's- eye views of the original central terminal building.

Designed by architects Skidmore Owings and Merrill, the new 15,000 sq m Pier D is glass-walled and gives uninterrupted views over the airfield. It is 350 metres long and provides for the segregation of incoming and outgoing passengers - a feature which is not available at the A gates in the existing terminal.

The skybridge will replace a much criticised prefabricated walkway to temporary boarding gates which are used mainly by Ryanair passengers.

The temporary gates themselves will remain in place until early next year when the second six gates on the southern side of Pier D are scheduled to open.

Airport director Robert Hilliard admitted the airport was "desperate for space". He compared the building programme to "moving squares around like you do in a children's puzzle, but without a free square to move to".

Work had already begun on the second terminal, he added, and as part of its expansion programme, the Dublin Airport Authority would spend more than €2 billion in the coming years on projects including the new terminal, a new runway and Pier D.

"It is not so long since we were spending €30 million a year on buildings, now we are spending €30million a month."

Commenting on a legal challenge from Ryanair to the plans for Terminal 2, Mr Hilliard said the only thing which would stop the building going ahead was an injunction from the court and one had not been sought.

Asked to rate Ryanair's chances of a successful its challenge, Mr Hilliard said: "He [ Michael O'Leary, Ryanair chief executive] admits his chances are low." Mr Hilliard said his own view was that Ryanair's chances were even lower than Mr O'Leary thought.

The airport is currently in the process of demolishing the formerly listed Corballis House to make way for Terminal 2.

While the new departure gates at Pier D will ease congestion at the airport, construction work on the new terminal, and the realignment of existing roads to serve the new terminal, is expected to lead to disruption and delays over the coming years.

Passengers using Pier D and the airport's A gates will access a new Garda National Immigration Lounge at passport control. However Pier users will have to wait until November for a Thomas Read bar to open. A Hughes & Hughes bookshop and a Soho coffee shop will be open from Sunday.

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill is a Chicago-based architecture practice founded in the 1930s. Many of its post-war buildings are iconic examples of modern architecture including Lever House (1952) in New York, the Air Force Academy chapel (1958) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the Sears Tower (1973) in Chicago. Recent projects include the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which is planned to be the tallest building in the world when completed in 2009.

The Dublin Airport Authority is also planning to develop a transportation centre for airport bus services and metro north which is scheduled to be in service by 2013.