Vehicle height for tunnel to be decided soon

A consultation process on the maximum height of vehicles has been announced by the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Mr Ivor Callely.

Submissions to the Department must be made by January 28th next.

Mr Callely will consider the submissions before making a maximum vehicles height order early next year. According to the Department the need for a maximum height restriction was underlined by the recent accident when a vehicle caused €1 million worth of damage to the Rathcoole Bridge in south Dublin.

Last October the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, decided against raising the clearance height within the Dublin Port Tunnel from 4.65 metres to 4.95 metres, largely on health and safety grounds.

The issue of the tunnel height also affects the proposed Shannon Tunnel in Co Limerick, the clearance height of which the former Minister for Transport Mr Brennan promised a decision "within weeks" of October 2003.

Announcing his decision on the tunnel Mr Cullen said the decision on the vehicle height was a matter for Mr Callely to decide.

But Mr Cullen said he did "bear in mind very strongly that the vast majority of other European countries and the big economic powers have maximum height substantially lower than what we have in place for the tunnel".

Commenting on the phase of consultation announced by Minister Callely yesterday Mr Jimmy Quinn, spokesman for the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) said it would be environmentally preferable to have fewer, larger trucks on the roads.

Mr Quinn said the effective maximum height in the UK was 4.95 metres and this was the "de facto" height here too. It was he said important that the heights not differ as the Republic shared a common land border with Northern Ireland.

While high trucks would not be able to use the tunnel he said "the world doesn't end at Dublin" and lorries would continue to use ports at Drogheda, Dundalk, Northern Ireland, Cork and Rosslare. Mr Quinn said the argument that railway bridges were too low to permit a height of 4.95 metres was "entirely spurious" because most of these old railway bridges had been by-passed.

"We have been building to a clearance height of 4.95 metres since the building of the Naas bypass in 1976 and the official height should legalise the status quo".