Dublin Port says that Phase Two of Terminal 4 at Dublin Port is opening this week, with some 160 new trailer spaces being added to the port’s operating land capacity over the coming month. This equates to over 100,000 truck movements annually and comes on the back of a €11.7m investment by Dublin Port.
Terminal 4 (T4) will be operated by Doyle Shipping Group (DSG), who work directly with shipping lines across all cargo types, facilitating the movement of containers and dry goods between Ireland, the UK, and mainland Europe.
Speaking about the new Terminal 4 opening was Senior Project Engineer Howard Costelloe, “The opening of T4 creates much needed new capacity for our RoRo land operations and it’s great to see that coming into effect today. The main contractor, Wills Bros Ltd, who have adapted brilliantly to the Port environment over the past few years, have delivered a high-quality infrastructure project that will be a key asset to the Port.
“The project came with significant engineering challenges. As a brownfield site with a long industrial history, we uncovered substantial concrete slabs and deep trenches beneath the surface – remnants of the foundations and service ducts from the fertilizer plants that once operated here in the 1950s.
“From an environmental and sustainability perspective, we achieved the ‘reuse’ goal set at the beginning of the project. Even though the land was somewhat contaminated from historic industrial works, through filtering, and refining, a large segment of the excavated material was incorporated into the yard’s one-metre raise. The Port was able to reuse over half of the excavated ground material which is a credit to the hard work and ingenuity shown by the designers DBFL and the main contractor, Wills Bros Ltd.”
For Doyle Shipping Group, the new Terminal 4 opens new opportunities. Speaking about it was DSG Manager Shane Morgan “This new capacity will give DSG much needed space to facilitate the growth in trailer volumes direct from mainland Europe. It was a pleasure to work with Dublin Port and Wills Bros on this project. RoRo trailers are a significant part of our business, growing substantially since Brexit. This new phase of Terminal 4 and the forthcoming phase are extremely welcome.”
Larger vessels now regularly call at Dublin Port, some with 6-8km of unaccompanied RoRo trailers on board. These are towed from the ships by tugs and are stored briefly in facilities such as Terminal 4 before being collected by local hauliers, usually within a number of hours, and brought to their final destinations.
The terminal will be used to support the growing unaccompanied RoRo trade, which accounts for some three quarters of all RoRo freight through Dublin Port. Last month, this mode grew by 5%, underscoring the need for new facilities such as Terminal 4.
The land used for Terminal 4 was previously used for the storage of empty containers, operations which have since been moved to the Dublin Inland Port and other locations, as part of a drive to optimise the use of scarce port lands for core operations. With the opening of Terminal 4, the amount of Dublin Port land used for non-core business, such as empty container storage and warehousing has gone from 40ha in 2018, down to 8ha in 2025.
The initial phase of Terminal 4 was opened in in 2023 by then Minister of State, Jack Chambers, TD. Overall €127m has been invested in the terminal, self-financed by DPC and delivered on time, and on budget.
The rejuvenation and resizing of Terminal 4 will continue, with the third phase to begin next year, further optimising the port estate for future freight growth.