AROUND 15,000 drivers of heavy good vehicles (HGVs) are avoiding the Limerick Tunnel every month and opting to drive through the city centre instead.
Rather than pay between €4.70 and €6 on toll charges, the truck drivers are going through the city and adding to traffic congestion. When HGVs had free usage of the tunnel last November, there was a 70 per cent increase in through traffic.
The total monthly traffic of heavy good vehicles during toll-free month last year was 37,518 — a huge increase from the monthly tally of 22,049 the previous November.
City councillor Joe Leddin is calling on the tunnel operators to reduce the cost for both cars and heavy goods vehicles in an effort to increase traffic from the current average of 16,000 vehicles per day. Alternatively, the Labour councillor suggests that the local authority could decide to ban certain HGV’s such as five axle vehicles out of the city and forcing them to use the €600 million tunnel.
Dublin City Council have successfully introduced a ban on heavy goods vehicles passing through the city centre for the Port Tunnel. However, City Council told the Limerick Post that it does not have the resources to implement a ban on HGV’s or the resources to enforce such a ban.
“One of the main reasons that the Dublin HGV ban works and there has been little complaint from HGV operators is that Dublin Port Tunnel is free for HGVs,” said a City Council spokesperson.
