1 million trucks have used the Port Tunnel

Traffic

Sometime this afternoon the million mark will be reached.

Wow!

whosedaddy?

Its open 6 month 20/12 to today = 190 days

1.000.000 /190 = 5263 trucks / 2 = 2631 each direction in 24 hours.

ignoring peak times makes 110 trucks per hour or 2 per minute.

Not very busy (on average) for a dual carriageway...

Also I wonder what were the initial projections as to when the 1 Mio mark would be reached.

mickoneill30

whosedaddy? wrote:

Not very busy (on average) for a dual carriageway...

What are the numbers for cars and buses?

Only 27 motorbikes!

Traffic

From rte.ie:

The one-millionth truck is due to pass through the Dublin Port Tunnel today, just six months after it opened.

New figures obtained from the National Roads Authority also show that more than 1.5m cars, trucks and buses have used the tunnel and have been kept out of the city centre since it opened last December.

There will be no prize for the one-millionth driver but the real winners appear to be city centre motorists. Since the tunnel opened six months ago, the number of trucks in Dublin City centre is down by 94%.

New figures show that 13,000 vehicles are using the tunnel every day and 8,000 of these are trucks.

Despite charges of up to €12 a trip - more than 4,500 motorists are also accessing it daily.

On the downside, the final cost of the Port Tunnel, which currently stands at €750m, is being disputed.

whosedaddy?

still..

13000 a day is 6500 each way. lets assume 14 hours of busy traffic.

464 per hour or 8 per minute each direction...

Still a v poor utilization of the dual carriageway that cost 750m (rather more)

Traffic

It means 1 million HGVs off the city centre streets over the last 6 months = what the tunnel was designed for

heyjude

whosedaddy? wrote:

still..

13000 a day is 6500 each way. lets assume 14 hours of busy traffic.

464 per hour or 8 per minute each direction...

Still a v poor utilization of the dual carriageway that cost 750m (rather more)

8 per minute in each direction and it has two lanes going each direction, so thats 4 per minute per lane, or one lorry every 15 seconds !

I know we are talking about lorries/trucks, but just 4 vehicles a minute per lane, is very poor use of such an expensive piece of infrastructure and who will use the tunnel at all, if they move Dublin Port to an alternative site in north Dublin.

Bluetonic

Thats right, it must be used to capacity all the time from day one. :rolleyes:

At least it looks like the capacity is future proof.

dodgyme

I love the way rte go "just six months after it opened"
No its not "just six months after it opened"
its "six months after it opened" - no need for the "just" bit (no need for the spin, and spin it is if you break down the figures)
unless ofcourse we are talking about Bev Flynn who settled with rte for "just" 1.3m instead of 2.8m "just" under half the amount owed , where is the "just"ice in that. Funny rte never reported the latter with the word "just":mad:

mickoneill30

Bluetonic wrote:

Thats right, it must be used to capacity all the time from day one. :rolleyes:

At least it looks like the capacity is future proof.

Just wait for another 10 years when people will be complaining saying that it should have been made with 3 or 4 lanes each way.

Zebra3

Traffic wrote:

From rte.ie:

There will be no prize for the one-millionth driver but the real winners appear to be city centre motorists.

I think the real winners are those city centre cyclists who would have been killed during the last six months if the the trucks hadn't been taken off the roads.

corktina

money well spent compared to some transport21 projects I could mention....

i think 1 lorry evey 15 seconds in each of four lanes...all day and all night is one hell of a lot of traffic out of the city centre, try doing that by rail.....

Wishbone Ash

mickoneill30 wrote:

Just wait for another 10 years when people will be complaining saying that it should have been made with 3 or 4 lanes each way.

Well, they are already saying that it would have been cheaper to buy all the properties between Whitehall and Dublin Port and construct a dual carriageway exclusively for trucks/buses and cars (for a fee).

A "know all" suggested this in my local about 10 years ago and he was laughed out of it. Somehow, now I think he may have had a point!

Irish and Proud

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Well, they are already saying that it would have been cheaper to buy all the properties between Whitehall and Dublin Port and construct a dual carriageway exclusively for trucks/buses and cars (for a fee).

A "know all" suggested this in my local about 10 years ago and he was laughed out of it. Somehow, now I think he may have had a point!

There was actually an April's Fool article in the late 1980's suggesting that a new 6 lane highway was to smash it's way through Whitehall, and then Drumcondra along the existing N1. From Drumcondra, it was to deviate into the archbishop's gardens before heading under Croke Park (putting the stadium out of action for a year) on its way to practically demolishing Mountjoy Square. From there, the Department of Education was to make way before the axe would finally fall on Liberty Hall!!!

The said reason for this road (apart from the obvious) was that EU money for ports (or something like that) was available, but had to be committed within a short time, so the road had to be fast-tracked to make the deadline - did you ever...

Cheers!