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.