and Declan O'Driscoll, the two Assistant Chief Engineering Advisers at the Department of the Environment responsible for the region. The location and type of crossing was not established by the LUTS plan. No road development in Ireland prior to that date had required such a large investment, and therefore the plan met with some opposition on the grounds of cost. In 1980, Cork Corporation commissioned DeLeuw Chadwick O’hEocha, engineering consultants, to undertake a feasibility study of options for a major highway crossing of the River Lee downstream from Cork city centre. A team led by J.D. Shinkwin, Director of DeLeuw Chadwick O’hEocha, performed the study. The first stage of the report established that the crossing should be located in Dunkettle, rather than at Tivoli, closer to the city centre. The second stage endorsed an immersed tube tunnel as the preferred scheme versus a bridge (either fixed or opening span). The primary reasons were that a tunnel would have a lower construction cost relative to its utility, shorter approach gradients, lower environmental impact and no effect on shipping once built. While the construction costs for a two lane tunnel were marginally higher than for a two lane high-level bridge, the steep upward ramp for a high-level bridge would slow down cars and trucks as they climbed the bridge, thus reducing its peak capacity dramatically versus a tunnel or, alternatively, necessitating the addition of a climbing lane with significant additional costs. The other alternative considered by the Steering Committee was an opening span bridge. While this solution would avoid the ramp problem of a high-level bridge, traffic would halt whenever the bridge had to open. Shipping volumes into Cork's port area was rising steadily in the 1980s, which meant that an opening span bridge was becoming less attractive every year. A sworn Public Inquiry into Cork Corporation's application for a "bridge order" providing for a two-lane tunnel was held in October 1985. The required inspector's report was submitted in January 1987 to the then Minister of the Environment, Pádraig Flynn. At that point, the report remained on the minister's desk for some time. The formal reason for this was that the minister "decided that the question of the timing of the crossing should be considered in the broader context of the preparation by the Department of proposals for the medium to long term development of national roads. In this context the operational