There are spaces for up to 750 trucks at motorway service stops, on roads and in emergency lorry parks if post-Brexit border checks from January lead to Dublin Port being closed to traffic.
The Department of Transport has unveiled a new colour-coded system to manage potential congestion heading into the port if traffic spills out of it due to new post-Brexit controls.
On the other side of the Irish Sea, the Welsh government has warned that 40 to 70 per cent of hauliers arriving at Holyhead – a key port for Irish traffic to and from Dublin – could be turned away under a worst-case scenario for not having the correct post-Brexit customs documentation. The government has said that turned-away lorries could peak about mid-January and that new border checks in Dublin could delay sailings, causing a backlog of lorries in Holyhead.
"Ongoing uncertainty on border infrastructure including the location of the long-term site for in-bound hauliers from Ireland to be used when further border checks are introduced later next year has impacted on the planning process," said the Welsh government.
In Dublin, traffic regulations prohibit standing traffic in the port tunnel, which means access for heavy goods vehicles to the port could be closed if Brexit border controls within the port lead to traffic jams.
The close proximity of the tunnel’s southbound exit to the port and the restrictions on traffic increase the likelihood of potential traffic congestion due to the new controls within the port. New signs will inform lorry drivers if delays are causing a “red” alert on port traffic and if congestion outside the port affects the port tunnel, approach motorways and city roads.
Under a "status red" traffic warning, up to 100 trucks will be "stacked" on a two-lane slip road from the M50 to the southbound M1 route to the tunnel and potentially back to the Ballymun exit.
A worst-case “blue” alert will tell drivers that the port is closed to traffic and direct lorries to an emergency parking for up to 250 trucks in part of Dublin Airport’s blue long-term car park if congestion is so severe that no more trucks can be stacked on motorway routes to the tunnel.
Status “green” will mean normal traffic in and around the port, while “amber” will mean congestion in the port, requiring “metering” of trucks heading south via the tunnel to the port.
In the event that no traffic is moving in Dublin Port, a new turnaround facility at the southern exit of the tunnel will allow trucks to be sent north back up the tunnel, away from the port.
Pat Maher, director of network management at Transport Infrastructure Ireland, the State agency that manages the tunnel and roads network, said that "prolonged" congestion at the port rather than the number of trucks would "trigger" a status "red" or "blue" alert.
“From a status red perspective, once the congestion moves out of the port on to the East Wall Road and begins to impinge on the [tunnel] toll plaza, that is the trigger,” he said.
Sharp increase
There have been no status red alerts at the port this year, and just one last year.
It is still unclear what the scale of post-Brexit border checks on goods moving to and from Britain will mean for traffic heading into the port. From January 1st, the number of container and lorry trailer units that will be subject to new controls will jump from 200,000 to 1.1 million a year.
"The big unknown here for us is what will the impact be in relation to the Brexit traffic and the way that that is managed within the State terminals and yards," said John Fairley, land operations manager at Dublin Port Company.
Department official Eddie Burke said there will be issues in January as people adapt to new customs and traffic procedures around the port as Brexit comes into effect. He does not expect the State's largest port to be "overly busy" in the first week or two of 2021 given that some businesses have stockpiled to prepare for potential delays after Brexit.
“The risks will be higher in the initial stages of Brexit while people get used to the system,” he said.
