Limerick Tunnel Open Day Saturday July 26th 2008
Don’t miss the last chance to see the Limerick Tunnel before it is immersed under the River Shannon, the largest river in Ireland. The Limerick Tunnel Public Open Day on Sat. 26th July is a unique opportunity for the public to see the tunnel in all its glory. The Open Day will run from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Access to the site will be via the Clonmacken Roundabout on the N18 to the Shannon Rugby Club in Coonagh. DirectRoute are providing an information centre with a scale model of the scheme and will operate a Pick & Drop Bus Tour from the club carpark. The guided bus tour will take you around the casting basin for a close-up view of the tunnel and associated site works.
After two years of dedicated design and construction work, the Limerick Tunnel project has achieved a major construction milestone with the completion of the Immersed Tube Tunnel Elements. The five Tunnel Elements are currently being fitted out for the next major phase of the Tunnel construction, immersion in a pre-dredged channel in the River Shannon.
National Roads Authority Chairman Mr. Peter Malone stated “It is wonderful that DirectRoute is willing to open their project doors and allow everyone to take a look at this magnificent project. As Chairman of the NRA and Chancellor of University of Limerick it is very exciting to bring both organisations together by highlighting one of the biggest and most challenging engineering projects in the West of Ireland. The Limerick Tunnel will not only benefit the people of Limerick City, it will support the local tourism industry and enhance business competitiveness throughout the region”.
Project General Manager of Direct Route Tom King stated “Engineers usually bury their best work, so please come along and let us show you this marvel of modern engineering before we bury it beneath the Shannon.”
Background Information
- The Limerick Tunnel is part of the final phase of the Limerick Southern Ring Road. This phase starts at the Rossbrien Roundabout on the N7 and continues westward along 6 km of dual-lane dual-carriage way crossing Greenfields Road, St. Nessans Road, the Dock Road and Bunlicky Lake before diving under the Shannon through a 915m tunnel and emerging at Coonagh. The route continues North West for another 4 km before connecting with the N18 to Ennis or travelling North East along the Clonmacken Link to the Clonmacken Roundabout. The road also includes 11 bridges, 6 underpasses and two toll plazas for the collection of tolls.
- Each tunnel element is approximately the length of a football pitch (100m), as high as a two storey house (8.5m), wide enough for two lanes of traffic in each direction (25m) and weighs in at 20,000 tonnes, giving a staggering combined weight of 100,000 tonnes.
- How does one move 100,000 tonnes of pre-cast concrete tunnel into the Shannon? The ancient builders of the Pyramids and Stonehenge didn’t have large cranes when they built their marvelous structures which many thousands of years later still invoke a sense of awe and wonder in those who visit them. As no crane has ever been built that has the capacity to lift 20,000 tonnes, DirectRoute will rely on Archimedes’ Principle, the fundamental natural law of buoyancy (after a notable ancient Greek engineer and mathematician). DirectRoute will first flood the casting basin (late August) to float the tunnel elements. The tunnel elements will then be floated out into the Shannon and immersed beneath the river in a pre-dredged channel.