Dublin Port Tunnel is the largest ever civil engineering project in Ireland, spanning 5.6 km of new motorway and acting as a link between Dublin port and the national motorway network. As a powerful access control system offering alarm processing, photo badging and high levels of external systems integration, the AC2000 SE system controls access in/out of the tunnel's "Plaza Toll Area", as well as controlling vehicle gates with loop detectors. Its integration capabilities made it the ideal choice for Dublin port tunnel with AC2000 SE directly feeding access control and intruder alarm information into the central SCADA system to create a single, embedded means of monitoring the entire tunnel site.

"Due to the scale of the project, the tunnel required a high-end security solution that incorporated CCTV, intruder alarms, intercoms, and central monitoring via a single SCADA system" comments Donal Colfer, system sales consultant, ADT, Ireland. "CEM Systems not only met client requirements for access control but also conducted major software development to allow data from the chosen intruder detection panels to be passed via the AC2000 SE system to the SCADA system for monitoring purposes" Colfer continues.

"CEM is known in the industry for providing highly reliable, distributed and customised security management solutions," comments Andrew Fulton, business development director of Tyco Fire & Security's CEM products "This proved fundamental in ADT's choice of the AC2000 SE system as the solution incorporated distributed hardware intelligence using S9020 IP controllers and a customised software solution to meet the specific project requirements of Dublin port tunnel"

To control doors at two remote operational buildings five miles apart, ADT installed CEM S9020 intelligent IP controllers with onboard databases, creating layers of distributed intelligence and resilience. The system continues to operate in the event of host communications being temporarily lost to ensure that tunnel operators maintain full jurisdiction of the tunnel at all times. This feature also offers Dublin Port Tunnel a second layer of monitoring and control as a failsafe in the event of temporary disruption/maintenance to the SCADA system.

With a comprehensive security solution installed, Dublin Port Tunnel is now fully operational and open to traffic. Working in partnership, Tyco Fire & Security - CEM and ADT have successfully secured one of the most important infrastructural project sites in the history of Ireland.