Top four infrastructure projects for Ireland.

Maskhadov

1. Redevelopment of Dublin port
Eastern bypass tunnel


2. Tuskar Tunnel to Wales
High speed rail line linking to deep port at Limerick


3. Wind farms west coast (150% of irelands energy needs)
Two electricity interconnectioners linking to United Kingdom

4. Exploration of oil and gas fields west coast worth €450bn

bazzer06

definitely agree on the tuskar tunnel thing - i would have two high speed rail lines - one Galway-Shannon-Limerick-Waterford-Tunnel and one Cork-Dublin-Dublin Airport-Belfast-Derry connecting them around Limerick junction somewhere.

Also i think rail access to all of our airports should be prioritised - for some (eg Galway, Kerry, Shannon) it wouldnt even take that much of a realignment.

I think a fully segregated metro system for Dublin is in order too, with four lines: Bray to Malahide; Coolock to Tallaght, Lucan/Leixlip to Dun Laoghaire and Metro West as proposed but with full segregation (why is it even called Metro??) Luas should only be used where large amounts of dedicated trackbeds are available or where numbers are low.

And lastly - windfarms everywhere - feck the NIMBYs i think they're lovely

Maskhadov

The Tuskar tunnel just needs a rail line going from Tuskar - Waterford - Cork - Limerick. It needs to go to the deep water port near Limerick of course. Its a pretty straight foward project. Just a tunnel and a high speed rail line.

The wind farms would probably be off the irish coast out of view from the shore. There is 150% of irelands energy needs off the coast and the fact that the government is doing nothing is a disgrace with all this global warming. Whatever the cost, it would pay themselves back eventually.

The eastern bypass should just be all underground. It would be great to see the end of the east link

transylman

Maskhadov wrote:

2. Tuskar Tunnel to Wales
High speed rail line linking to deep port at Limerick

Why not build a space elevator while you're at it.

Maskhadov

those are realistic projects transylman. yours isnt.

The hong kong port generates a lot of revenue and the port of limerick can do likewise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Hong_Kong

jesus_thats_gre

Where is the information to backup that fact that you feel there are realistic projects?

Maskhadov

Well the port is worth approximately €20bn to €30bn. Releasing that kind of money should be enough to fund the

development of the port into a mini manhatten. Its 600 acres of prime Dublin 1 real estate with mounting problems

of traffic congestion on the west of the city it makes sense. An eastern bypass would be the simplest thing to construct and reduce the need for an outer ring road and help reduce the congestion on the M50. All motorways in Madrid are now build underground and they should just keep tunnelling from the port tunnel down to the M50. The housing market is slowing down now and the economy really needs a big construction project to keep things going.

Trade in the world is on the increase year in year out. Ships are getting bigger and products are being shipped world wide. In Hongkong there is a massive deep port that is one of the central hubs in the world. It has fully automated cargo handling facitlity its truely impressive. Thats the main one in Asia. In Europe most traffic goes through the Netherlands but the english channel is too narrow to allow the new larger ships to pass through. A deep port in Limerick would be one if not the most important freight port in europe which could serve most of europe via rail.

Wind energy speaks for itself. If there is 150% of Irelands energy needs off the west coast then it should be fully exploited. Whatever the cost it will surely pay for itself over the lifetime of the windmills.

BendiBus

What's the ballpark figure for the construction of a "Tuskar Tunnel"?

How long would it take?

What is the possibility of a Southern England port like Southampton taking on the role you propose for Limerick (England already having a tunnel to the mainland)?

Maskhadov

2005 prices put the tuskar tunnel at €11bn. That could rise to €15bn. It has to be rail only though. Im not sure about the length of the construction but it would be 5 years once the machines start diggining I imagine.

I dont think there are any deep water ports in England and we have a golden oppurnity.

Prof_V

Deep water is as deep water does. The biggest container ship at the moment, the Emma Maersk, draws 15.5m of water. Southampton's deepest berth is 16m; Le Havre's new port extension offers 14.5m with the possibility to deepen to 17m. Hunterston (near Glasgow) is planning a new deep-water container port; the coal terminal there at the moment offers 23m. By comparison, Moneypoint (also a coal terminal, of course, and the deepest berth on the Shannon) has 25m.

Container ships don't actually have the greatest depth requirements; tankers and bulkers are still bigger than the biggest container vessels, though the latter hog the limelight nowadays. Furthermore, there's disagreement over whether container ships will keep getting larger and larger, or whether they'll hit a practical limit (as effectively happened to tankers thirty years ago). Thus, I'm not sure the Shannon has a clinching advantage to counteract the drawbacks of being out on a limb of the rail network, dependent on two undersea tunnels.

I'm not too sure about the tunnel costings; they seem to come from the Chamber of Commerce of Ireland and appear to be a bit back-of-an-envelope; basically they scaled up the Oresund (Denmark-Sweden) scheme and added a bit. If you take the 1997 Dublin-Holyhead scheme (which at least was produced by engineers, though the costings were widely derided) as a basis - it was supposed to cost £14 billion sterling in 1997 - this would suggest at least €20 billion, though this would be for a tunnel as opposed to the bridge-tunnel scheme which the CCI suggested, seemingly with no justification other than being able to lift the Oresund figures.

Jambo

The rail tunnel option to Wales could allow Ireland to be a main nodal point for trans-atlantic shipping trade with major bulk shipping been offloaded in Ireland and in turn been transported via a High speed rail link to the rest of europe . In saying that the Atlantic seaboard of France probably already has the advantage over any possible move by Irish in this direction .

Just my 2 pence worth !

GreeBo

Maskhadov wrote:

The wind farms would probably be off the irish coast out of view from the shore. There is 150% of irelands energy needs off the coast and the fact that the government is doing nothing is a disgrace with all this global warming.

Id like to see your figures on this...

Maskhadov wrote:

Whatever the cost, it would pay themselves back eventually.

Problem is that the time it takes them to pay for themselves is longer than their usable lifetime...
So it pays for itself in 15 years but needs to be replaced after 10.
In any case, by 10 years old they are redundant and there are better ones around.

Maskhadov

i dont have figures but herad the 150% on numerous occasions.

The SEI have some information on wind energy but i dont know the figures invovled.
http://www.sei.ie/index.asp?locID=267&docID=-1

thebman

The problem with wind energy is that it isn't guarenteed!

So to get 100% energy from wind power, you might have to build to exploit the full 150% = very expensive and lots of windmills littering the coast so you'd have too many objections.

Not that I'm against it but there are problems with the implementation. Putting all your eggs in one basket is a bad idea in general.

silverharp

-Refill Kinsale gas wells while we can, and ensure we have a strategic oil reserve (if deep sea oil and gas can’t be found quickly)

-go Nuclear and close down all the oil/gas/coal and peat stations, Nuclear/wave and wind would allow me to sleep more easily at night.

for Dublin on the basis of have 8 or more luas lines, toll/ban all traffic coming into the city

Move Dublin port, redevelop the Port Area also ban greenbelt housing around Dublin and pick the 4 or 5 worst areas in Dublin for complete redevelopment