Bridges & Boardwalks

[AndrewP]

Are they definitely being taken out?

[Peter Fitz]

I'm guessing he means the fairly crude box like fittings installed as part of the scheme.

[AndrewP]

Sorry, that's what I meant. Are the kiosks being removed, or is it a guess because they've been railed off?

[hutton]

Sorry, that's what I meant. Are the kiosks being removed, or is it a guess because they've been railed off?

The Fridges are indeed going. Dammit they looked so suitable as the book market they were intended as

[Ciaran]

Is there a time frame for the removal or will this be another long term project?

[hutton]

Theyre gone!

Happy days. Area is still cordoned off, but I am glad to say all 4 units have been removed.

[Morlan]

I'm sure they'll be found washed up on Bull Island one of these days.

[missarchi]

i think it was worth it that bridge how has a wider footpath than oconnell st bridge!!

[GrahamH]

It was incredible how quickly they vanished - so much so you begin to wonder if it was all a dream when you see the patches of newly laid granite where they once stood. Perhaps that's the intention
Literally within 3-4 days the bridge was back to normal, though the fencing is still there. Lovely to see the generous expanse of paving again.

Only one major quibble, and that's the obsession in this city with laying drainage channels in the middle of pavements - why can't surfaces just slope down to the road?! Or at least do what was done on O'Connell Street and make the slope so gradual towards the centre that a single strip of near-level paving slabs acts in itself as the channel, with regularly spaced drains. The current one of moulded shape is ideally designed for tripping over, and sited exactly along the route of heaviest pedestrian traffic.

now if they could take the horrible lamp standards too

Absolutely. Tesco Southampton want their car park lighting returned asap.

Okay they're decent enough, but entirely unsuited to bridge use, and entirely unnecessary with the dazzling halogen lamps of the seahorse parapet standards.

[GrahamH]

A breath of fresh air.



Lovely to see everything back to normal again. Nice clean view of the Malton house and bumbling terrace too.




But given the €100,000s spent on this project, why was such a crude finish reinstated in parts?




Most of the resurfacing is of a high quality, but shoddy workmanship such as this pock-marking all about the place is a slap in the face to the overall high standard of the original project. Why couldn't matching slabs simply have been cut and inserted? One would have thought every effort would be made to compensate for what will go down in the annals of history as Nightmare on Grattan Bridge.

[Peter Fitz]

Excellent, now all we need is to get rid of those feckin lamp posts !!
Shame about the finish in spots but to be honest, i didn't expect any better, they're quite adept at butchering paving ...

[PVC King]

A victory for common sense!

I'm a great believer in mobile kiosks as if they don't work in a particular location assuming no wall to place them against you are trying to front then you just move them. In general kiosks over a meter tall represent clutter with little rent and massive disruption to sight lines; in London the Christmas lights on South Molton Street were exceptional but were ruined by a kiosk on Oxford Street of similar dimensions to these ones selling fake football tops and other cheap textile crap.

Were these ones sent to Croker or will they be reused somewhere else?

[Peter Fitz]

So looks like we're getting the BX bridge & sooner than we thought ... the only bit of positive news is that BX circus will not go ahead until after metro north is complete - enough time i hope for sanity to prevail & the ridiculous loop as proposed by the RPA to be abandoned.

Given that you could actually piss from O'Connell bridge & hit this new yoke, it had better be as discreet as possible.

New LUAS bridge to ease traffic
Thursday, 17 April 2008 19:06
A new LUAS bridge is to be used to ease traffic disruption in Dublin city centre during the construction of the Metro North and the interconnector.

Dublin City Council's Director of Traffic Michael Philips said the bridge to be built for LUAS line BX is 'urgently needed' to keep buses moving when works start in 2010.

He said an implementation group has been set up using engineers who worked on the Port Tunnel to oversee works by the Rail Procurement Agency and Iarnród Eireann.

AdvertisementMr Philips said they will advise on construction methods which he said is an evolving situation and will see St Stephen's Green become 'Grand Central Station'.

He said business groups are worried about the five years of disruption they face because of their experience during the last LUAS works which only lasted 18 months.

Mr Philips confirmed to a meeting of the council's transport committee this evening that construction of a bridge for LUAS BX linking Hawkins Street on the southside with Hawkins Street on the northside will go ahead.

It is planned to have it ready when the dig starts for a new Metro North station on O'Connell bridge.

But apart from enabling works construction of the LUAS BX which will link the Red and Green lines will not begin until the metro is completed in 2013.

Mr Philips said the council are working with the utility companies to warn them that major works on gas, water and electricity lines will not be possible for five years after transport works start.

It was confirmed to councillors that private cars face bans or restrictions in College Green, Westmoreland St and O'Connell St.
And that work on the Arnotts development will be going on at the same time as metro and interconnector works.

[fergalr]

A new LUAS bridge is to be used to ease traffic disruption in Dublin city centre during the construction of the Metro North and the interconnector

What does that mean?

[missarchi]

urgently not needed...

everyone will be catching the metro after this so this is a waste of money
oconnell st bridge should be limited to 4 lanes

[tomk]

Can I confirm about the article on the BX bridge that it will be built by 2010 for buses to use during Metro dig construction so as to minimise commuter disruption but that it will only be after Metro completion in 2013 that the Luas construction on it to link red and green lines will begin?

[jimg]

The BX bridge will be a disaster. It will destroy the context for O'Connell Street bridge. It will create a nasty break in in the pleasing (slight) regularity to the series of Liffey crossings which form the spine of the city.

Allowing free reign to my suspicions, it's obvious that the Roads and Traffic people in DCC have been intent on having a bridge at this location for many years. I seriously doubt that the "preferred" BX route is actually preferred by the RPA. I suspect that in order to "buy off" the strenuous and public objection from the DCC to linking the Luas lines, they came up with the dogs dinner plan (60% more expensive by the way than the the most obvious route) which incorporated this bridge. It's obvious that DCC's objections on the basis of their love and concern for O'Connell St. and the passage of busses around the end of Grafton St. were b*llox given that they've implicitly given their backing to this massively disruptive route which still involves digging up O'Connell St and going around the Nassau/Grafton St. corner. Once the RPA included the "bribe" of this bridge in a hacked together last-minute plan, DCC dropped their objections.

I was hoping the obvious flaws with the suggested route would confine the idea to the bin where it belongs and initially things looked that way as further work on BX was deferred in favour of more pressing RPA work. Now it looks like the most objectionable part of the whole route F (the bridge) will be built without the principal reason for building it purely to satisfy the whimsy of some traffic engineers in DCC.

What disgusts me is the state of O'Connell Bridge and I do not accept the excuse that we should wait 'til metro north is built to do something about it. It's been in an embarassing state for decades. This bridge should be a centrepiece in the city and should be maintained and preserved as such in the way that similar structures are treated in cities which have any tiny bit of appreciation for historical fabric and are not run by a roads and traffic department. The BX bridge is actually completely typical; DCC devote so much energy and concern into procuring a "shiney new" bridge right beside the most important bridge in the city instead of putting a fraction of the effort into maintaining O'Connell Bridge in any form beyond the absolute bare minimum. All the marketing and PR w*nk from DCC about their aspirations for Dublin is shown up by their treatment of O'Connell Bridge. It is in awe that I try to imagine the size of the ego required to think that you could improve the one of the most important WSC set-pieces in the city by plonking another bridge 90m away destroying any remaining symmetry to it's context. Meanwhile the existing bridge is in a foul state.

[johnglas]

If you give over urban planning to roads engineers, that's what you get. (Remember all the 'road widening' that blighted city centres for years?) In my view, they should all be locked in a dark room and only let out when there's a full moon (and then only when there's a Z in the month).

[Peter Fitz]

Can I confirm about the article on the BX bridge that it will be built by 2010 for buses to use during Metro dig construction so as to minimise commuter disruption but that it will only be after Metro completion in 2013 that the Luas construction on it to link red and green lines will begin?

That appears to be the case Tom.

[StephenC]

T'was little commented on but sturdy old Butt Bridge finally got its ballustrades repaired and a much needed clean. Perhaps our comments here spurred the CC to some "routine maintenance". It is most welcome. Must try and get some snaps.

Its a shame that the awful tarmac paving here couldn't be redone with some nice stone and I was thinking what a nice spot this would make for the four remaining concrete lampstands on D'Olier Street/ College Street. They could be removed (its happening already) repaired and places at either end as a nice feature. Surely a vast improvement on the ugly streetlamps currently in place.

The next "routine maintenance" jon in relation to the bridges is to replace the feature lighting which seems to be rather neglected on many of the bridges - Joyce, O'Casey and Millennium being the most notable.

[alonso]

saw that and also saw a plastic barrier on one of them on Friday as it had disappeared. Think it's gone now and we have a full bridge

[JJ]

Here's a couple of pictures of the new Spencer Dock bridge showing progress and a view of the structure now the scaffolding has been removed. The best views of this bridge will be from the linear park or in the canal itself.
JJ

[missarchi]

that metro west bridge bit the dust hard?

[JJ]

that metro west bridge bit the dust hard?

Pray tell. Has it been binned ?

[CraigFay]

A picture of the Spencer Dock bridge I took yesterday