An Bord Pleanála has confirmed that it is to stage an oral hearing into the estimated €9.5 billion Metrolink project for Dublin.
This follows the appeals board writing to parties confirming the oral hearing though a date for the oral hearing has yet to be set.
The MetroLink scheme is to comprise 16 new stations running from Swords to Charlemont and will carry an estimated 53 million passengers a year.
In September of last year, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) lodged its Draft Railway Order (DRWO) application with An Bord Pleanála seeking the planning go-ahead for the project and the appeals board has received 318 submissions on the DRWO.
Documentation lodged with the DRWO state that construction work is intended to commence in 2025 with an opening year of 2035.
The oral hearing will provide a platform for third parties to outline their concerns over aspects of the project.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) is expected to clash with TII over the potential impact of MetroLink on St Stephen's Green.
In a submission, the OPW has expressed concern that the Dublin MetroLink project "would have a direct, severe, negative, profound and permanent impact" on the heritage value of St Stephen's Green and contended that the risk of damage to St Stephen’s Green from a Dublin MetroLink station "is unacceptable".
At the oral hearing, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) will also make the case that the route of the MetroLink under its Dublin campus be moved 61.5 metres westward to partly address its concerns over the project.
In a submission to An Bord Pleanála, consultants for TCD, Declan Brassil stated that the current planned route of Metrolink, and wholly inadequate mitigation measures proposed, "have significant potential to constrain or sterilise Trinity's existing and future core academic and research activities on the eastern part of the campus".
The consultants have told the appeals board that in the event that TII fail to demonstrate that effective and proven mitigation measures can be implemented, then TCD "is left in the position where it requests that the Board refuses consent, or terminate Metrolink at a point north of Trinity’s campus".
Already, a total of €300 million has been spent on Dublin's various Metro projects to date with construction work yet to take place.
In. figures provided earlier this year by the Secretary General of the Department of Transport, Ken Spratt stated that the spend on the current MetroLink to the end of March of this year is €115.3 million.
In his letter, Mr Spratt said that a cost estimate for MetroLink of €9.5bn is considered the most likely cost at this preliminary stage.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
