Roads & Streets Department plan for northern port access scheme now requires 5.6 km connection with M1 motorway to include 4.5 km twin-tube tunnel. Design/build contract value I£150 million. Start 1999. Consultants: Ove Arup. Contractor to decide method. Dec 1998.   Official go-ahead received from government. Visit www.arup.com January 2000. Dublin Corporation and the National Roads Authority in Ireland have announced the award the $450 million design/construct contract for the Port Tunnel to Nishimatsu Mowlem Irishenco. The port road will be a 5.6 km-long dual carriageway, most of which will be in a 4.5 km-long twin-tube tunnel. Construction will commence in early 2001, using two TBMs to accelerate the overall process. The tunnel should open in mid-2004 to provide a high quality access route for the 2 million trucks that currently travel through the city each year to the port. Visit www.nra.ie and www.mowlem.co.uk to view two beautifully constructed sites that should be carrying this news, but, sadly, are heavily cobwebbed. Owners please note! Haswell requires a Designer's Representative with 15 years experience of both cut and cover and bored urban tunnels to interface with client Nishimatsu Mowlem Irishenco. Site-based position of 3-year duration. Contact David Podmore recruit@mrijfc.co.uk 27/01.Twin-tube, two-lane tunnels under construction by NMI with 1.9 km in cut and cover and 2.6 km to be driven by two Herrenknecht 11 m-diameter EPB TBMs from 30 m-deep x 56 m-diameter access shaft sunk in ten weeks by four Cat excavators 330/325. On schedule for completion December 2004. More from Cat Magazine or visit www.cat.com 31/02.

Tendering for connection to Belfast-Dublin motorway at Santry involving 2.1 km cut-and-cover and 2.4 km of twin tunnel at 20 m depth in limestones and clays. NATM techniques likely. March 1999.   Five prequalified joint venture consortia invited to bid. Appraisal will take three months with award expected well before Easter, 2000 for a start late-Spring. November 1999.  Prequalified joint ventures named as Hegarty, Dumez-GTM, and Ostu Stettin; Portlink Consortium of Miller, Nuttall, Ascon, and Beton u Monierbau; Amec, Spie Batignolles and Mulcair; Irishenco, Mowlem and Nishimatsu; and Campenon Bernard SGE, SIAC and Universale Bau. NATM techniques most favoured for 2.4 km-long link. November 1999.