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A PLAN TO build a 16 kilometre jet fuel pipeline in Dublin has been called “crazy”.
The plan would see a pipeline built from Dublin Port to Dublin Airport, along the route of the Malahide Road, before cutting across Belcamp and up to the airport.
It would dissect a busy residential belt including East Wall, Fairview, Marino, Clontarf, Donnycarney, Artane, Coolock, Darndale, Ayrfield, Clare Hall and Burnell
The plan has been mooted for a number of years, but has now seen a formal planning application lodged with Dublin City and Fingal councils.
Fingleton White, the company behind the plan, say that the plan would bring Ireland in line with the UK and other nations.
They add that the pipeline is necessary because it takes nearly 16,000 tanker trips to keep the airport stocked with fuel.
Clearly, sustainable, secure and safe delivery of airplane fuel is a key service to the airport. Airport fuel is currently delivered to the airport from Dublin Port by road tankers.
In 2013, demand for aviation fuel at Dublin Airport stood at 630 million litres. With tanker capacity at 40,000 litres per vehicle, the service was delivered by around 15,750 tanker round trips between the Port and Airport. Demand is expected to grow to 1,450million litres by 2035.
The proposal documents add that the fuel is “relatively benign” and that Ireland is not warm enough to turn the fuel to vapour.
Fingleton White were granted planning permission for a similar plan in 2001, but postponed it after the September 11th attacks.
The fuel store at Dublin Airport would be redeveloped as part of the plan.
Crazy
The plan has long been opposed by the people of the Whitehall and Coolock areas and local independent TD Tommy Broughan says it is “crazy”.
He says that pipeline is unnecessary because of the building of the Port Tunnel and the fact that only 1.5% of all traffic in the tunnel is made up of aviation fuel vehicles.
“Residents in Copeland Avenue and the Malahide Road and district have contacted me expressing their shock at the submission of this crazy, half-baked and ill-thought out proposal.
I am deeply concerned about the proposal for the new oil pipeline route and the lack of adequate consultation that has taken place to date with all residents potentially affected and their public representatives.
“When it was first proposed in 2001, we had no Port Tunnel. The building of such a pipeline seems totally unnecessary now and will cause great distress and potential health and safety issues for thousands of Dublin Bay North constituents”.
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If the pipeline takes upwards of 15,000 fuel tankers off the road each year it can only be a good thing for North Dublin.
Explain how it can be a good thing.
The answer to that is contained in my original comment Glen. 15,000 + trucks of the roads of North Dublin every year.
I’m not bothered by trucks.
I am bothered that these drivers will be unemployed when this is completed.
Well then you’re a luddite standing in the way of progress. Did you say the same thing about the Luas putting taxi and bus drivers out of work?
I never thought that the luas would put taxi drivers or bus drivers out of work. To my believe the luas didn’t but this pipeline will. Hey I’m not a truck driver and have no financial gain from this pipeline but the story overlooked the fact that it would create unemployment which will be carried by the tax payer and I see nothing wrong with how it’s done now as it created employment and contributes in taxes. The pipeline will stop all that.
Another thing that was devastating for employment: electricity.
You know Glen, they could probably drive another thing to a different place. They dont have to be out of work
Don’t cure disease you’ll put doctors outta work.
Glen you are talking about 10–12 truck drivers in total not to mention taking highly flammable trucks out of city streets.
Heh Glen why are you using a PC and posting on line? It has put thousands of printers, compositors and journalists out of world. Not to mention paper delivery boys and delivery van drivers.
Actually Scipio, no one you are not taking them off the streets the leave the port at alaxander dock, travel via the port tunnel, (what it is there for) onto the m1 for .5of a km and into the airport
Glen, the pipeline would certainly put truck drivers out of work but it would create a demand for more high-skilled engineers and technicians which would be needed to operate and maintain the pipeline.
Tell you what Glen, we could divide the fleet in two, put a giant water tank somewhere on the northside and another one somewhere on the southside and pay these guys to move the stuff back and forth across the city from one tank to the other all day instead.
We could even make it interesting by turning it into a competition to see which team could empty their tank first….
How will they be unemployed? They’ll still be needed to ferry the fuel from the fuel farm to the aircraft!
Will someone please think about funeral homes!
Wayne, they go onto the M50 first and then the M1 to the Airport junction
I believe the Buggy Whip manufacturing association are still pissed off at the massive drop in their members since the introduction of motor vehicles a century ago.
Why would you go on the M50 if you were coming from the port to the airport? Out of the tunnel onto the M1 first exit is the M50, second exit is the tunnel.
No the Port Tunnel is part of the M50, the M50 starts just off the East Wall road and continues out of the tunnel until the M50/M1 roundabout, the M1 starts here at this roundabout, its mad the amount of people who don’t know that.
Glen
Many of the workers will be Dennis O’Brien workers, bet that will give you a different prospective!!
If people are that concerned about it perhaps they can dig up a lane in the PT and run it under?
It’s a totally different job from bringing it form the port to the airport, than it is from the airport depot to the aircraft.
Glen doing his seagull posting again. Fly in, drop a load of poo and then off to the next article.
I have to agree with you to some extent Glen.
Up to 47% of all US jobs are under threat from automation – driverless cars, gps driven machines, etc – http://www.gizmag.com/half-of-us-jobs-computerized/29142/
So you have a point, but unfortunately big business is all about big profit in the end.
How many of the potential objectors have an under ground gas connection to their house .
Hundreds of thousands of us have exactly that.
And the rest have much more exposed jet fuel (kerosene) pipes running into their homes.
The worst kind of nimby-ism.
Wonder how many of the objectors wrote off the shell to sea protesters as crusty malcontents. This makes so much sense,fuc# the anti progress nimbys
This is Ireland.
Nothing could possibly go wrong!
Of course it should be done. But all the NIMBYs and aul’ ones who have lived there all their lives will object upon safety grounds and add 15 years onto the project.
I agree with you that it’s a pure NIMBY reaction. They’re are no safety issues, as it says in the story, aviation fuel only burns when it’s vaporised. As a liquid it’s pretty harmless you could throw a match into it and it would put it out just like water. Ryanair will be backing this proposal because the efficiencies will deliver huge savings to them and allow them to offer even cheaper fares.
It’s a sensible suggestion, those objecting have no issues with the gas pipes connected to their houses and that fuel is more volatile!
Wouldn’t it have made sense to incorporate this into the port tunnel during it’s construction
Precisely why it wasn’t done.
Aviation fuel is very hard to lignite. I used to work at Heathrow and part of induction was a fire course where we had to do a simulated plane evacuation and put out a small fire with an extinguisher. The fire poured fuel into a bucket and then proceeded to throw matches in to it to show how hard it was to light. They then soaked a rag in diesel I think, lit that and threw it in the bucket. The kerosene only lit when the diesel rag had warmed it enough to vapourise it, which took a while. Gas is way easier to light and under big pressure and we don’t give it a second thought
Build the pipeline, and pay for a DART service to the airport while you are at it!
Exactly! Talk of a LUAS Line to the airport is ridiculous!
So just over 43 trucks a day coming and going or 86 trips avoided daily. More danger in truck having an accident than building a pipe. This is beneficial to north Dublin and will reduce costs.
and yet aviation fuel traffic is 1.5% of all traffic in the tunnel. Are there only 5,700 vehicles using the tunnel normally?
So a bit of proper infrastructure gets proposed and all people do is moan! Seems like they just can’t win!
Sounds like good forward thinking and city planning. Like something you would see in a well organised country with proper infrastructure. Can’t imagine it being built and I would prefer to see the health service being put in order first, but again, money doesn’t seem to be the problem with the health service.
This will create jobs during the building stage but the truckers will be unemployed after its finished.
It doesn’t effect me but why do we always have to be in line with other nations. What ever happened to doing things our way.
Hi Glen
It’s the “in line with other nations” bit that always makes me laugh… We always “follow” other nations but do it our own backward unworkable way, like we started building motorways (M50) but instead of using existing tried and tested examples built one too small and stuck in roundabouts and traffic lights to stop people getting off until we had to rebuild it. Now we have the Eirecode fiasco where we’ve managed to create our own over complicated address system (that’s what a post code is… shorthand for an address) instead of using a workable system as a template.
Yes put in a pipe line, but don’t say it’s to bring us “in line with other nations” as I don’t think it’s compulsory to have a fuel pipeline to run through a city, it’s ONLY done when it’s needed and not because it’s trendy.
There’s a word in economics to describe what your proposing Glen it’s called “rentseeking”…Google it.
Necessary or not, a jet fuel pipeline along that proposed route would be subject to series of hazard operability studies (hazops) and design reviews. I’d like to see what safeguards/control measures would be proposed.
NIMBYism… They’re probably just looking for a payout in relation to this…. Though aside from
Construction disruption I don’t see any health, safety or distress issues this pipeline could cause.
Didn’t we recently build a giant pipeline, close to that route, that the tankers can just drive through?
They don’t let them because of the danger of a crash.
… so nimbyism thinks having 44 13.6 metre trucks full of aviation fuel travelling above ground every day – and don’t forget the chances of one being in an RTA – is safer then a single, buried small bore pipe? A pipe smaller and less volatile pipe than the Bird Gais mains one they happily live with ?
Muppets.
Get the shell to sea crowd up and stop this that should keep them going for another few years and add on water protesters and Wallace and gromit of course as they have experience in all things aviation
The corrib gas pipe line immediately springs to mind and Dublin alot more populated than rural mayo.
Big difference, a pipeline transporting fuel from bay to airport or the corrib gas fields that were just given away to shell
People didn’t protest because of safety concerns in mayo. Also that is gas, which is a lot more volatile
Diarmaid. I sure the nice people of leafie maladahide wouldn’t want a pipeline of any kind going through their community
You should really look at the route. It goes nowhere near “leafy Malahide”
Better give up their gas central heating so…
Didn’t read the article I guess ! What’s wrong with leaves anyway ??
You need to have a good talk with yourself… The risk to one family in Mayo should be deemed the same risk to any number in any other county…
Another idiot objecting ….tommy Brough an is useless as a politician ……great idea to alleviate traffic and much more cost effective
Let’s hear more of these health and safety concerns. Will it be layed above ground?
Yeah they’re going to leave an expensive and dangerous fuel line exposed in north Dublin
How could it be over ground? The upstanding members of a certain community would have it empty before they filled it. Never mind what they’d do to the pipe itself.
All right ill shut up with my questions. Can we at least hear more about what health and safety concerns the td has ?
Does it help if I say I don’t yet have a position on this proposal?
Nobody cares what ur position on this subject is Kevin
THe fuel will make it as far as belcamp
Sean O Shaughnessy how is it dangerous? Aviation fuel doesn’t burn as a liquid that only happens when it’s vaporised !
It was a joke boganity. Keep calm
Forgot to use the sarcasm font then.
What percentage of Fingleton White is owned by Denis OBrien?
Get it built lads! Dublin airport is by far the most used airport on this island. The usage is only going to increase.
The council shouldnt have a say on matters of national infrastructure. Mostly now because its made of brain dead idiots like yer man there.
It was grand to stick an unrefined one in the back gardens in Mayo… What’s the difference?
I suppose it’s a good thing. But the negative more than likely outway the positive. Using think. I would not like to think that there would be a pipe full of aviation fuel near my house. Look before you dig in this case would be a disaster waiting to happen. Looks like an other oppertunity for a group to be set up.
There’s most lightly a pipeline full of natural gas already flowing by your house and its alot more flamable and dangerous than jet fuel. People seem to survive.
If the negative ‘more than likely’ outweighed the positive this idea would have been dropped long ago, or would never have been thought up in the first place.
Once again it’s all about Dublin.
You’re completely right Dave, sure after all isn’t Knock airport so much more deserving of infrastructure upgrades than the largest and most utilised airport on the island?
We could build the pipe line from Donegal direct to Dublin Airport and that would then by pass the city of Dublin. So then it would not be all about Dublin ! Ok ?
Would there be a safety issue with this pipeline. Truckers and families need the work also
Expect delay’s and cancellation’s
The gas lines running to your home are more dangerous to be fair. A pipeline pumping aviation fuel would be subject to regular maintenance and supervision, much more so than the gas lines supplying homes.
When it comes to jobs, it would likely create more jobs through the requirements for maintenance than it would cost in terms of truck drivers.
Isn’t a truck load of highly explosive jet fuel driving on the most busy roads in the state, pass schools, offices, homes etc not a not a bigger safety issue ? and if one crashes in the port tunnel basically everyone in it is dead !.. at least pipes you get a small fire controllable rather than explosive fireball hundreds of feet high !
Jet fuel isn’t highly explosive. A regular petrol tanker is far more dangerous.
It’s the same truckers who fuel the aircraft anyway!
Avina Laaf – To explode, it must mix with air… assuming in the crash some has it is… As I guess could happen if a lorry etc hits the fuel tanker.. either way going to be a terrible fire & in a closed space like the tunnel with furiously burning liquids (which will heat the Jet A into gas form making an explosion going to happen anyway), exploding cars & who know what other trucks are carrying if you not in the escape room or out of the tunnel in minutes your dead from smoke or heat.
Nope totally different trucks and lads used to fuel the aircraft.
So you might think TheJeff…however repeated viewings of ‘Daylight’ starring Sly Stallone by all tunnel users should take care of that eventuality.
Look we all know that if there is money involved than its happening. Corroborate gas is shining example
This is Ireland, what could possibly go wr….KA-BOOM!…..
The tunnel does this job perfectly well. It’s little more than 5k to the airport without a single traffic light or stop along the way. The real insanity is that we are projecting this level of growth in the use of aviation fuel. Now that is dumb.
Shipping in and trucking jet fuel about! Why not fly it in instead of flying with minimum fuel? Fly full sell half. Michael gimme a call will you?
Or Ryanair could go for in-flight refuelling and contract out to one of the European Air Forces…or the Saudi Air Force; whichever is cheaper. Would also save them turn-around time on the ground. No, I know 737s aren’t equipped for that but it’ soundly a bit of pipe, surely. An entrepreneur could then buy an A380 or A400M, convert it to tanker spec and make a few Euros.
The pipeline is a much better idea. UK has lots of fuel pipelines, some of them long distance and they carry all liquid fuels. Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester etc do not get fuel delivered by tank trucks, it would be simply insane to even try it. Ditto major Air Force bases.
One tiny point; a full tank truck is far less dangerous than a supposedly “empty” one as the latter is actually full of fumes. In fact, “empty” tankers are police-escorted through the Dartford Tunnel in the UK for just that reason. Tunnel is cleared first and following traffic is held back. Are “empty” tankers escorted through the Dublin tunnel? If not, why not?
Shipping in and trucking jet fuel about! Ridiculous. Why not fly it in instead of flying with minimum fuel? Fly full sell half. Michael gimme a call will you?
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