Blackhall Place Bridge

No. The bridge is intended for buses and taxis only afaik, buses going to blanchardstown get it very difficult to turh right onto the next one and hard right again off it before a hard turn left up Blackhall Place.

Besides “The Dead” house is in the way on the south bank.

Seems to be a huge effort for a bridge that is not going to have access to taxpayers cars. Is it just me of does it look very flat- the bridge in the background is more arched shape- I think it is too flat- wonder what nickname this bridge will get- the eye lash!!

“Seems to be a huge effort for a bridge that is not going to have access to taxpayers cars”

There’s more to life than cars Michael – whats wrong with good looking civic design, nothing civic should have to be as Sam Stephenson put it “self effacing like a VD clinic”.

[Mr Crawford. Your statements concerning the Blackhall Place Bridge project are totally irresponsible and inaccurate.In fact some might say bordering on foolhardy. This bridge has been designed by Santiago Calatrava, who you should know, purporting as you are to be a student of architecture, as a very experiencd, well respected design house of international reput. However, I’m sure that the said design house will decide to follow up, or otherwise, with you directly on your opinion. As far as Harland and Wolff are concerned your statements have caused acute embarrassment and potential contractual difficulty, although I accept that you probably did not intend this to be the case. I know that unwanted advice is never welcome but you and your peers would be well advised to consider such things BEFORE committing to print. This is especially the case if and when you do progress to the role of architect or engineer when you will realise how important such contractual issues are, as I’m sure your lecturer will no doubt explain to you.
Chas Connery – Director of Projects.
QUOTE]Originally posted by darrancrawford:
Bridge is being held up due to the extremely bad practice of one Mr S. Calatrava. His bridge is in pieces, on blocks in Harland and Wolffs shipyard in Belfast. It is suffering from multiple failures due to very bad detailling by Calatrava’s office, warnings given by H&W ignored, fundamental mistakes in fabrication were made on the insistance of Calatrava. The bridge’s key anchor points are now the subject of an ongoing wrangle with Calatrava, H&W and Dublin Corp. Put it simply, they are unbuidable and until Calatrava starts to listen to the fabrication experts in H&W the bridge will be indefinately delayed. Tellingly Calatrava have sent numerous bridge builders bankrupt all over Europe due to his poor practice. Betcha never read that in the AR[/QUOTE]

FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES:

Design problems halt work on Dublin’s latest bridge
John Burns

DUBLIN city council has admitted that a landmark bridge across the River Liffey has been delayed because of serious fabrication problems.
The Blackhall Place bridge is being designed by Santiago Calatrava, one of the world’s leading bridge-builders, and is being welded together at Harland & Wolff. The Belfast shipyard denied last week that it has clashed with Calatrava over how the bridge should be put together. The difficulties emerged following a visit to the shipyard three weeks ago by architectural students from Queen’s University, Belfast. An engineer involved in the bridge project allegedly told the students that serious mistakes had been made, including welding too-thick plates to too-thin ones.

Using some “unrepeatable phrases” the engineer is said to have blamed Calatrava for the problems. One student on the tour subsequently posted a detailed account of the comments on the internet.

The shipyard was furious when it found out that the visit had been reported and, following representations to Queen’s University, the student’s posting has been taken down from the website of the college’s architectural society.

A spokesman for the shipyard said: “The comments which were attributed to Harland & Wolff have been taken totally out of context by the person who put them on the website.” The shipyard admits there were “minor problems” with the fabrication, but said this was not uncommon on innovative structures. It has no direct relationship with Calatrava, the shipyard said, and none of the delays on the €20m project were its fault.

Following the revelations, however, Dublin city council conceded that there have been difficulties in “effecting the fabrication of the details” of the 41m by 33m bridge, including questions about the compatibility of welding some sections together.

Tim Brick, deputy city engineer, said: “There is no denying that there have been tough nuts to crack on the fabrication side. That’s all part and parcel of doing something like this.

“There have been problems with the fabrication details, and there were questions about the compatibility of welding some sections. This is a detail to be resolved between the designer and contractor on the shop floor.”

All work stopped on the project for some time while the difficulties were being sorted out, but Harland & Wolff denied that this was for three weeks. Asked who was responsible, Brick said he would not attribute blame to any party until the council got to the bottom of the difficulties. “I would have been surprised if there weren’t problems though,” he said. “We have confidence that they will overcome it.”

Calatrava, a Spanish architect and engineer, has designed dozens of flamboyant bridges throughout the world, the most spectacular being one across the Guadalquivir in Seville. Some rivals think Calatrava just likes to show off, and invariably his designs are intricate and complicated.

“The Blackhall bridge is very difficult to build,” said one source involved in the project. “That does not mean it is not buildable. The people who have to fabricate these bridges just sometimes wish that Caltrava would make things easier for them.” Dublin city council said last week that it was very happy with his work.

Apart from the fabrication difficulties, the Blackhall bridge is also being held up by what Brick described as “nasty foundation problems”. Due to be finished this spring, the Liffey bridge will not now be completed until October.

The four lane bridge, linking Ellis Quay to Usher’s Island, is intended to carry up to 2,000 cars an hour and aims to distribute north-south city centre traffic more efficiently. The main corridor for such traffic, down O’Connell Street, will be severely restricted when the street is upgraded.

Constructing Dublin bridges has offered a new lease of life to financially troubled Harland & Wolff, making last week’s controversy all the more embarrassing for the Belfast company.

The shipyard was subcontracted by Irishenco, an engineering firm, to fabricate the Blackhall bridge and to repair the Ha’penny bridge last year.

It is also hoping to get the contract to build another north-south link, the Macken Street bridge. Calatrava has also been commissioned by Dublin city council for this project, due to be completed by 2005.

Calatrava’s office in Zurich was unable to provide a spokesman to discuss Blackhall bridge last week. Irishenco said it and the designer were “working together and things are on target and on course”.

What is interesting is that a minor piece of information on two very niche and unknown websites can develop because of legal action into a story worthy of the Sunday Times. I think John Burns is actually registered to post here, but I imagine if HW hadnt complained, this piece of information would have simply faded from view.

A lesson to everyone that sometimes the legal approach creats bigger problems.

Actually I’m not too disappointed, its hard enough to get information out of architects, but if they though we were a conduit for confidential information it would be so much harder.

I assume we can continue to discuss everything bar the information Darren niavely divulged. If I hear otherwise in this mornings post I’ll let you all know.

Yep – as someone who works in marketing/PR I’d have to say they blew it on this one!

Any further progress on this
Have not been down that direction for a bit