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Noel Dempsey has confirmed that plans for a new port in North Dublin at Bremore, south of Dundalk will be given the go ahead. This was flagged before by the PDs in their plan to redevelop the port area of Dublin City. If the new port ultimately replaces the current port in Dublin City, what exactly becomes of the Port Tunnel? A rather expensive stop-gap.
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but it will smell awful
a road. many cities have plenty of tunnels like that. dublin should have a few. only prob here calling it the port tunnel
A road to now incredibly valuable property for redevelopment, with Joe Burke in charge of deciding what happens to it.
Thanks for clearing that up P, as i suspected.
Sorry Cian,
This new port is actually overflow for Drogheda which is at capacity, it’s absolutely not a replacement port or overflow for Dublin Port.
Here’s what today’s Irish Times report ($) said –
The decision will raise speculation about Dublin Port, which is currently being eagerly viewed by property developers, including Liam Carroll and Philip Lynch’s One 51 group.
Last December, the Drogheda Port Company selected Castle Market Holdings, an alliance between the Johnny Ronan/Richard Barrett-controlled Treasury Holdings and London-based Jermyn Investments as a joint venture partner following an open tender.
The pressure on the State’s docks has increased dramatically in recent years. Dublin Port, for example, is near full capacity. Before the general election, the Progressive Democrats argued that Dublin Port should be transferred to Bremore, leaving the docks ready for a multi-billion euro development of well-serviced apartments and offices. Last year, Treasury Holdings director, Paddy Teahon, who previously served as secretary general at the Department of the Taoiseach, said Bremore had “enormous potential”, and was “quite unique and one of the most exciting projects in Ireland today”.
The directors of Castle Market Holdings are Rory Williams, John Bruder, Johnny Ronan, Joseph Patrick Hearne, Joseph Simpson, Raymond Yeoman, Frederick Horney and Richard Barrett. Castle Market Holdings made a €7,618 donation to Fianna Fáil’s election campaign, while it also held a fund-raiser which raised €5,434 for the party.
It’s been on the radar screen for years that Bremore could be the eventual replacement for Dublin Port.
And while the linkage to the property speculators raises eyebrows, there is an underlying logic. Trying to squeeze complex infrastructure right into the centre of a booming city doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Cities around the world have long since moved their ports out of town to where space is more available. Newark is the port for New York City. London Docklands etc. But the government is doing the Drogheda expansion while at the same time claiming to be undertaking a study of the future of Dublin Port. Not much joined up governmennt there.
The PDs (well, mainly Tom Morrissey) has been pushing to have Bremore replace Dublin Port for a long time now; in fact their “A new heart for Dublin” was centred around that very fact.
When I spoke to Morrissey myself he said the tunnel could basically be a fast lane into the new development for residents. He also said the port tunnel was never fit for purpose (he said this just before it opened).
While it would still have a use if Dublin Port was taken away I somewhat doubt the public at large would have supported it and put up with its construction had it been originally built as a fast lane for the residents of a very exclusive residential development.