Tinnellys were asked to carry out the demolition of a number of structures along the route of the tunnel, most notably Shantalla Bridge over the busy N1, the Harbour Police Station and the bandstand in Fairview Park.

Patrick Tinnelly, from John Tinnelly and Sons, explains:
Shantalla Bridge presented a number of challenges – mainly concerned with minimising traffic disruption.

The demolition of the bridge started after a temporary bailey bridge was erected and the Shantalla Bridge traffic diverted over it. Bridge decks were demolished over two consecutive weekends - the deck over the city bound lanes demolished within the
first weekend; the country bound side within the second. In each case, we were granted a time window from midnight on Friday until 4.00am Monday morning to complete the works. Thanks to a well planned operation, the city bound section was completed on Sunday evening, and the country bound section in the early hours of Saturday morning, some 24hrs ahead of schedule.”

Following this major demolition work, the bridge abutments were broken out over the next two weeks and Tinnelly crushed all the arising concrete for reuse in the construction of the Port Tunnel.