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Corrib bound 160-ton truck finally free

The lead truck from the convoy which 'overnighted' in the Sligo Retail Park at Carraroe has finally been pulled from the bog road at Glenamoy in north Mayo.

See SligoToday.ie 30/7/12 for details (incl Video and Photos) Sligo lap of journey from Holland.

The 160-ton truck which jack-knifed carrying tunnelling machinery for the controversial Corrib gas was moved, Shell Ireland said.

The 40m (131ft) vehicle had blocked a junction near Glenamoy Bridge in Mayo since Tuesday morning.

Shell apologised to the local community and road users who were inconvenienced by the incident.

“The operation to remove the vehicle, which was carrying part of the Corrib tunnel boring machine, was successfully completed at approximately 3pm yesterday afternoon (Friday),” said a spokeswoman.

“This was carried out in consultation with the gardaí and Mayo County Council.

“The removed truck and a second one which was behind it have been safely transferred to the Bellanaboy Bridge gas terminal.”

The stranded truck was one of three large vehicles transporting parts of a tunnel-boring machine, which will be used to drill a 4.9km (3-mile) tunnel under Sruwaddacon Bay and inland to the terminal.

Tensions have remained high between activists at the scene and gardaí and Shell security, who escorted the slow-moving convoy of specialist tunnelling equipment as it travelled from Holland to Dublin and via Sligo to north Mayo.

Six people were arrested throughout the week.

The protesters claimed hundreds of gardai and private security were mobilised to the scene in the early hours of the morning.

They maintained convoys of lorries then hauled stones from a stock pile inside the refinery to the site and dumped them into the field below the cab of the jack-knifed lorry to secure the bog road for a crane – which they feared would make the condition of the road worse.

See SligoToday.ie Related Articles above right.