Tunnel Operation
The road surface was laid in 1998/1999 and the tunnel opened for traffic on 31 May 1999, roughly 20 years after the first formal studies had been prepared. The final cost of the whole scheme including feeder roads and not just the tunnel itself was IR£105 million (approx €133 million). The tunnel has two separate two-lane bores (each lane 3.75 m wide). There is a service walkway about 1 metre across which doubles as an emergency escape. During periods of maintenance, one tube may be closed and the other used for bi-directional traffic. The environment within the tunnel is controlled by an array of monitors and a closed circuit TV and traffic control system. External photocells linked to the computer management system provide a level of tunnel lighting most compatible with ambient light levels outside. To assist drivers in adjusting their eyes, lighting gradually brightens as they approach an exit.
Jet fans located within niches in the roof of the immersed tube sections provide longitudinal ventilation, and the tunnel is equipped with fire and life safety equipment.
Despite the cost of its construction and operation the tunnel is not tolled. The Feasibility Study for the tunnel envisaged that the crossing could have a toll of 30 pence (in 1981 IR£) (approximately €1.05 in 2007 money), but the concept of a toll was dropped after political opposition. It was felt that, because of the proximity of the tunnel to the city, the imposition of tolls would tend to encourage some drivers to avoid the tunnel and continue using the city centre streets thus minimising the benefits of the tunnel.
An immersed tube tunnel of similar length has been constructed in Limerick, as part of Limerick's south ring road. The Limerick Tunnel was constructed under a Public-Private Partnership scheme signed with Direct Route (Limerick) Ltd. and is tolled (and has resulted in some political opposition in Limerick as the Jack Lynch Tunnel is also an inner city relief route but is not tolled).
Read more about this topic: Jack Lynch Tunnel
Famous quotes containing the words tunnel and/or operation:
“It is the light
At the end of the tunnel as it might be seen
By him looking out somberly at the shower,
The picture of hope a dying man might turn away from,
Realizing that hope is something else, something concrete
You can’t have.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)