Dublin airport’s €200 million tunnel receives planning permission

An Bord Pleanála, which is, among other things, Ireland’s national independent statutory body to determine appeals on planning, recently granted the Dublin airport operator planning permission for a new €200 million tunnel on their premises.

Furthermore, the tunnel in discussion was scheduled to run under Dublin airport’s “crosswind” runway and originally received permission to do so from the Fingal Co Counsil in February 2023.

However, the project was appealed to by north Dublin-based residents’ group, SMTW Environmental DAC, as well as the airport’s largest customer, Ryanair, based on the grounds that “the business case for the spending of over €200m on this project has not been made”.

The proposed tunnel is scheduled to run for 700 meters on a total alignment of 1.1 kilometers, aiming to improve the airport’s safety and access by separating aircraft and vehicular traffic.

However, the opinion of the appealing groups was that the aspiring underground connection of the airport’s eastern and western aprons could be achieved at surface level, and at a lower budget, which would affect the passengers’ ticket prices.

Inspectors on the matter concluded that the underpass is a critical piece of infrastructure which should be developed, while its construction would last roughly three years.

A Judicial Review against the board’s decision is still possible to be issued within eight weeks and could further delay the project’s development.