Engineering consultancy Ramboll has expressed an interest in bidding for work on the Dublin metro, the proposed rail line connecting the city centre with its airport, says one of the firm’s executives.
Denmark-based Ramboll specialises in transport development among other areas and is involved in work for the Government and State airports company, DAA.
Ann Gordon, the firm’s market director for transport in the UK and Ireland, says Ramboll would be interested in working on Metrolink, as the project is now known.
“There is no doubt that we would want to be involved with a project like Metrolink,” Ms Gordon said.
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The Government has pledged that the project, debated for decades, is going to happen.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland’s plan, submitted to An Bord Pleanála, connects Charlemont on the capital’s southside with Swords and north Co Dublin, via the city centre and the airport. It ties in the Luas, the Dart and existing rail services.
However, the time taken to get this far with the project, a cost estimated at up to €23 billion and potential planning objections mean many are sceptical about the prospect of any Metrolink being completed by the 2035 target date.
Ms Gordon says the proposed rail line was badly needed. “When you arrive in Dublin Airport, what it’s lacking is that connectivity with the centre of the capital,” she said.
Dublin is one of the few European capital cities not to have a direct rail link with its airport. However, the number of buses serving the airport from the city and other centres has grown in recent years.
The Ramboll executive also said that the 32 million a year passenger limit on Dublin Airport needs to be addressed.
Legal action has suspended the limit, and the airport expects to handle about 36 million passengers this year, but the condition, imposed by planners in 2007 to control road traffic, remains in place.
Ramboll works regularly with Dublin and Cork airports operator, DAA, as well as Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the Government.
The Department of Transport recently hired the company to advise on electric vehicle infrastructure. That work will involve comparisons with five other EU cities, financial analysis, procurement and risk assessments, the company has said.
It is also working on the A5 dual carriageway, linking Derry with the N2 to Dublin.
Ms Gordon is based in St Alban’s in Britain but comes originally from Co Carlow, so is familiar with the transport challenges the State faces.
Owned by the Ramboll Foundation and its workers, who have around 3 per cent of the business, Ramboll is a global architecture, engineering and consultancy business with operations in 35 countries.
The company’s key areas of expertise include building, transport, energy, environment, water management, architecture and landscape.
