Irish port to spend €230m deepening berths to make it easier for larger ships to berth in the city
By
Rebecca Gibson |
Plans to extend infrastructure and open up Dublin Port to larger cruise and cargo ships have been approved An Bord Pleanála in the Republic of Ireland.
As part of the €230 million Alexandra Basin Redevelopment (ABR) Project, the port will dredge the river Liffey to increase the depth of its berths and the entrance channel from 7m to at least 10m. This will eliminate access issues caused by tides and enable large cruise and cargo ships to turn in Alexandra Basin and dock at East Link Bridge, rather than reversing up the Liffey to their berth as they do now. It is hoped that this will encourage larger ships to routinely call at Dublin, enhancing inbound tourism and generating more revenue for the local economy.
Part of Dublin Port’s Masterplan 2012 to 2040, the ABR Project is the largest single infrastructure development project in the port’s history and is expected to take up to five years to complete. The port authority has already secured financing and expects construction work to start in October, subject to final consent from the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government and from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The engineering design works are already at an advanced stage and we expect the first phase of works to be tendered and a contractor ready to start by October 2015,” said Eamonn O’Reilly, chief executive of Dublin Port Company. “We have achieved strong consensus on how to deliver this major piece of port infrastructure in a way that is compatible with the operations of other major infrastructure providers within and adjacent to the port.”
Dublin Port is Ireland’s largest port and this year it expects to handle a record number of cruise ships and passengers, with almost 100 vessels bringing around 200,000 visitors to the city. This includes some of the world’s largest cruise ships such as MSC Cruises’ MSC Splendida, Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess and Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Silhouette, all of which measure up to 333m in length.
The port has also recorded a 4.8% rise on the ferry routes between Dublin and the UK and Dublin and France in the first six months of 2015.