Poo-Powered VW Bug Hits British Streets

POO POWER! GENeco, a waste treatment company in Bristol, UK set out to prove that bio-gas could be a reliable alternative transportation fuel, so they imported special equipment to help process their waste and upgraded a VW Bug to run on methane. The poo-powered Bio-Bug is being hailed as a breakthrough, because the bio-gas it runs on doesn’t affect the performance of the vehicle like previous versions of the fuel.

Digging up Dublin: six years, two drills, one big traffic jam

Traffic chaos could be on its way back to Dublin with the building of the proposed 18km-long Metro North railway, but its project manager claims the multi-billion-euro plan will cause minimal disruption to those living around – and above– the construction. The main contract for the stations and the drilling of the tunnel will be awarded towards the end of 2011 with most of the heavy works beginning in 2012. The target date for completion is 2016. This will be followed by a period of trial runs with passengers anticipated by early 2017.

Metro Safe as Key road and rail projects axed

FORTY major road projects and key rail and Luas projects have been scrapped because there is no money to build them.

Nine new motorway rest areas planned for the M7 (Limerick), M8 (Cork), M9 (Waterford), M3 (Cavan) and N11 (Wexford) have also been mothballed by the Government, an Irish Independent investigation has found. The National Roads Authority (NRA) has run out of money to build the 40 roads, which include bypasses and dual carriageways.

It has been "directed" by the Government not to build the remaining rest areas along motorways, sources revealed.

The axed projects will be confirmed in a government mid-term review of the National Development Plan (NDP), which is expected to be completed within weeks.

The investigation also found:

The Government has almost halved funding for infrastructure between now and 2013, from €39.6bn to €22.9bn.
The NRA will begin just three projects next year, and all are in partnership with the private sector, with monies to be paid back over 30 years.
A series of projects under the NDP also face the axe, including several of the capital's Luas links.
The only projects considered "safe" under the NDP are Metro North, the Atlantic Corridor Road project linking Letterkenny to Waterford, and the underground DART.

Emerald Site Visit

Below are some pictures from a visit to the site in March.

€500m loan for Metro project approved

THE DUBLIN metro project was given a significant boost yesterday when the European Investment Bank announced it had approved a €500 million loan in principle. The bank’s vice president with responsibility for Ireland, Plutarchos Sakellaris, said yesterday that the project represented a significant contribution to sustainable urban transport for Dublin. It will be a public-private partnership (PPP) project with a provisional completion date of 2016. “It will be the backbone for a future integrated public transport network in the Irish capital,” said Mr Sakellaris. Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey welcomed the decision and said it was an important signal of confidence in a priority public transport project for Dublin. “Metro North is now well on track for delivery in 2016,” he said.

Emerald started on site!

After a very long wait, the walls of the emerald housing development are starting to rise. Expected completion date is january 2011. We will be updating the progress of the build right here on wadriver.org, the online home of the Emerald Co-operative.

Metro North hearings put back to March so public can view changes

AN BORD Pleanála hearings into Metro North, the proposed underground rail link between St Stephen’s Green and Swords, have been suspended, at least until March.

The suspension is to allow the public and interested parties to review changes to three aspects of the project’s design. The changes cover the Mater hospital, Ballymun and Seatown stops.

Emerald @ Innovation Dublin

The Environmental Fair, nestled in a market style setting within the City Hall, will be a showcase of environmental innovation projects, programmes and ideas.


The Fair earned Ballymun the national title of ‘Green Community of the Year’ in 2008.

New Logo

The idea behing the logo is to consolidate the existing abstraction of the Scott's Pine and bring Emerald a fresh and vibrant feel as the co-operative embark on the construction period of the project.

Spring Cross Go-Ahead

Up to 2,000 construction jobs are to be created next year by Real Estate Opportunities (REO), the listed property vehicle majority owned by Treasury Holdings, after objections to its €800m mixed-use development in Ballymun were dropped.

Emerald Sod Turning!

from left to right: Chief Architect Derry Solon, Matt Stevens, Architect, Roger Warburton, Conor O'Brien, Dean Scurry, Minister John Gormley, Daphne Sproule, Antoinette Farrelly, Alex Sproule, & Ciaran Murray.

Minister John Gormley T.D, Minister for the Environment, Heritage, and Local Government, announced details of the next generation of low carbon homes in Ireland whilst turning the sod on the Emerald Project in Ballymun during the summer.

Metro rail delay as board seeks new details

AN BORD Pleanála is now unlikely to make a decision on the Dublin Metro North project until early next year following its request for a raft of further information on the project from its promoters, the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA).

An RPA spokesman has conceded that the board’s request will result in a delay in determining its Railway Order application, but he said the agency would work hard to meet the October 1st deadline for submitting the new information.

RPA selects two bidders for Metro North project

TWO GROUPS backed by a series of multinationals are set to bid for the right to build and operate a new rail network valued at up to €5 billion.

The State agency charged with developing the Republic’s rail networks announced yesterday that it has chosen two bidders for the Metro North project, the underground rail line which will link Dublin’s city centre with its airport and northern suburb of Swords.

Metro North timetable derailed

The Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) recently wrote to the four groups that have tendered for the multibillion-euro infrastructure project to inform them that An Bord Pleanála would not be in a position to give a decision on the railway order application until September 4th.

This is some six months behind the original estimate and means that the deadline for “best and final offers” from the shortlisted tenderers has been pushed back from December this year to February 2010.

Dublin must reform or decline, says study

DUBLIN MUST reform its transport, local government and enterprise agencies if it is to avoid stagnation, urban sprawl and a decade of under-achievement, according to influential Futures Academy.

A new report by the academy, which is based in the faculty of Built Environment at Dublin City University, predicts city regions will become the dominant economic and political forces, competing with each other globally.

Its report, Dublin at a Crossroads – Exploring the future of the Dublin City Region, presents three scenarios for Dublin and its east coast hinterland in the year 2030.