State papers: Private sector lobbied against Jack Lynch Tunnel
The O'hare Eddie Eventually Tunnel 1999 A Jack At In Was May Of Lynch Cost Opened File £70m Picture:
Intense lobbying efforts on behalf of private investors were made in the late 1980s to persuade the Government to reverse its plans to build a tunnel under the River Lee downstream from Cork city in favour of an open span bridge.
State papers released under the 30-year rule show the Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, and the Minister for the Environment, Pádraig Flynn, agreed in March 1988 to review the scope for private sector investment in major road projects including the proposed crossing of the River Lee which was designed to alleviate traffic congestion in Cork city.
Consultant engineers hired by Cork Corporation had first recommended the construction of a two-lane, immersed tube tunnel in 1981 to run between Ringmahon Point and reclaimed land near Dunkettle. They estimated the tunnel would cost £25.2m and take almost six years to construct.
However, a Dublin-based engineering firm, McCarthy and Partners Consultants, claimed in 1989 that the decision to opt for a tunnel had been based on inaccurate data about shipping movements, while a bridge could be built at 25% of the cost of the tunnel.
The company’s owner, Paddy McCarthy, who had engaged in correspondence with the country’s top civil servant at the time, Pádraig Ó hUigínn, since the previous year argued a bridge was a “relatively low-cost solution” and would attract private investment that would ensure a construction time of three years.
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“In the present economic climate, it is probable that a low-level bridge would predate a tunnel by at least five years and more likely by 10 years,” said Dr McCarthy.
He claimed any disadvantage which a low-level, open-span bridge might have at the time would become outdated within five years and non-existent within 10 years as more shipping used port facilities at Ringaskiddy instead of the city docks.
Dr McCarthy informed Mr Ó hUigínn, the secretary-general at the Department of the Taoiseach, that the convenience and savings resulting from a bridge would far outweigh any disadvantages of the “random closure” of the bridge to allow vessels pass.
However, Dr McCarthy said if it was decided that the tunnel was the only acceptable form of crossing, he would accept the situation and not pursue the matter any further.
The Jack Lynch Tunnel was eventually opened in May 1999 at a cost of £70m.