'Urban myths' about port tunnel

The discovery of fairies deep in the ground beneath Whitehall in Dublin; huge "Niagara-like" leaks; and "a catastrophe" on the adjacent railway line were just some of the urban myths that grew up around the building of the €750 million Dublin Port Tunnel, according to the project's director.

But, while "lurid imaginations in the tabloid press" were part of the problem, Tim Brick said much of the myth-making on major projects related to bad communications on the part of project managers.

Maintaining that "the day of faceless project managers sitting in the back office and hiring spin doctors is over", Mr Brick, who is also deputy Dublin city engineer, said nobody involved with the Dublin Port Tunnel management "appreciated that there was a battle to be fought".

He said a clear policy of providing accurate information to the public and the media would be vital in future schemes such as the Metro and Luas extensions.

Speaking to The Irish Times after he addressed a local authority professional officers' seminar, Mr Brick said the management of accurate and fair information on major infrastructural projects would now have to become part of the training of project management staff.

"You must have the information to hand when dealing with the public. You simply can't hum and haw in answer to their questions, promise a response later and never get back.

"People have a right to know what the need for the project is, how long it will take and how much disruption to them it will cause."

Reports would emanate from the site very quickly whether the project managers liked it or not, he said.

In one instance, he said, he was dismayed that he first heard of a crane being blown down when he was asked for a comment by a journalist five minutes after the accident had happened. But he was dismayed too when the tabloid press described a landslide on a railway line as a "catastrophe".

It was terrible, he said, trains were delayed and it shouldn't have happened. But it was not a catastrophe, he maintained.

Mr Brick said the city council had turned reportage of the port tunnel "from 95 per cent negative to at least balanced or neutral" by ensuring timely and accurate information was provided to the media and the public.

"We decided we wouldn't have our project blackguarded and allow urban myth to take legs," he said.