grrrrrrrrr
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Fears of children playing may lead to bridge alteration
Fears have emerged that Dublin’s newest bridge across the Liffey may be extremely dangerous for children tempted to play on it.
Dublin City Council said last night that, if necessary, it will amend the design of the new James Joyce Bridge after people expressed anxiety about children climbing on it.
The council says it is monitoring the activities of children climbing and sliding on the bridge.
The €8.4 million bridge was opened on Monday by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Dermot Lacey.
Young people have been seen climbing up and sliding back down the steel arches that rise about 25 feet above the traffic. One man who saw their activities on Monday evening, Mr Gary Leeson, said there was an “obvious safety risk” that the children could fall into either the traffic or the river below.
A Bridewell Garda station spokesman said there had been a number of calls from members of the public concerned about young people on the bridge.
“There’s not a lot we can do except tell them to get down. It is dangerous alright. Something awful could happen.”
A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council said that although standard health and safety checks had been carried out on the bridge before, during and after its construction, “we did not anticipate this activity by the children”.
She added: “We are monitoring the situation and will amend the design if necessary.”
The bridge is an integrated part of the North King Street traffic management scheme and has been designed to facilitate buses, in particular.
According to the deputy city engineer, Mr Tim Brick, it was also built to ” set a high standard of design for an area that was likely to see a lot of new development”.
I was at the opening on Monday and it was one thing that struck me. It does seem like an open invitation to the daredevil types !
“………and will amend the design if necessary.” makes a shiver run though me with images of anti-climb devices.
I am also amused that the seating does not have some sort of anti-skateboard design incorporated. Surely this is day number one of street furniture design nowadays.
I bet they’ll erect big cumbersome ‘Irish fencing’ barricades with barb wire that will ruin the look of the bridge. Me I’d leave anyone whether it be street urchin or drunk who attempts to use it as a slide; they should be left and let fall into their rancid Liffey watery grave as an example to all who attempts the same. Jesus, what is lacking with some people today is ‘responsibility’…..to be responsible for ones own actions….to be responsible for your childrens actions. Everyone is only too willing to blame someone else…. aka compo culture.
I was going to post something along similar lines but …. fuck it! let the little shits play on the bridge and see what happens!
Absolutely f***ing ridiculous, this is the nanny state at its worst, what next rubber pavements in case people fall over – pathetic pathetic pathetic
And you can walk on the wall’s of o Connell bridge too – risking a nasty tumble into the liffey. The sooner they get a proper high security fence up on that the safer I’ll feel. I’ve heard you can slip if you stand on the wooded rail of the boardwalk though I’m sure that can’t be true as it has won loads of design awards.
I don’t think those involved should touch the bridge. You can fall into the Liffey anywhere along its length.
Hopefully, the novelty will wear off when the winter approaches and the little ruffins will find something else to do.. like litter and graffiti.
That reminds me, was it sprayed with anti-vandal paint? Also, once the spike is finalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly unveiled… the graffiti will be up within hours!
A funny related story was an incident about 6 weeks ago where some moron went for a swim (no doubt spurred on by sa,pling the delights fo one of our superpubs) and was left clinging onto the support struts pf the Boardwalk. No doubt he contributed towards the cost of the subsequent rescue operation!
How soon after construction can you have a structure preserved. Could it be added as is to the protected structures list? Is there any precedent on this?
I went down to see the bridge yesterday evening. Someone had already managed to puke in front of one of the granite seats. There were two American tourists sitting just over from it admiring the view towards Heuston. Imagine their thoughts!!!!
When i saw a kid climbing the bridge, the first thing i thought is that the architect forgot a common principle often employed by web and interface designers, that of “affordance”. Certain objects “afford” certain actions and communicate these actions by their appearance. Yes it is true that all the bridges on the Liffey have railings that could be walked on, but the new bridge is designed so that its railings afford or invite walking/ climbing. A simple change in design like simply making the first 4ft of the railing at each end much narrower than it presently is would make climbing on it much less inviting and with good visual design employed would not really harm the look of the bridge. What has happened is just so typical, a design that does not consider actual human use. Anyone could see a mile off this would happen.
I think you are wrong … most people wouldn’t dream of climbing the bridge and I am sure that the designer would be conscious of this and therefore would not need to factor this into his design.
However, some people will climb something regardless of how much the design dissuades them.
I know that MOST people would not dream of climbing the bridge. Most people are not climbing it, just a few kids, but that is all it takes to cause problems. The point is that the form the bridge takes does invite and accomodate climbing. MOST people resist this invitation as they care for their personal safety, because of social decorum or because they have better things to do but children often have none of these things. I am not condoning the actions of the children, just saying that a little further thought might have prevented the problem.
I have to say, the bridge screams ‘Climb Me!’.
I don’t think the kids are doing anything bad, they are interacting with there environment. It is up to the designer to be aware of the social interaction their product is going to provoke.In this case I think it was either an oversight on the designers part, or else he thought it might happen and chose to ignore it.
Wasn’t the bridge originally designed for a more remote location in Spain. Kids won’t travel to interact with their environment, they will however interact with their immediate surroundings. Maybe this particular bridge would serve better in a rural location with regular to heavy traffic, rather than in an innercity area with a close local population.
Personally, I quite like the bridge and think it will promote people to enhance the surroundings. In 20 years it will be a great stretch of river!
If MOST people would not dream of climbing the bridge (for whatever reasons) then the design of the bridge does not ‘invite and accommodate climbing’. Its simply that, as with most low level structures, the bridge can be climbed.
I think you are missing my point…just because most people do not respond to the invitation does not mean the invitation does not exist. Yes all low level structures can be climbed but to quote bluefoam the structure does yell ‘climb me’ ,whereas not all low level structures do.
To provide a comparison to explain my point, if a bus shelter is made from wood, people are more likely to write on it than if it is made of glass, though both materials can in fact be written on(this has been proven from studies in the UK). The properties of an object affect how we react to it and in my opinion the design of the bridge does have something about it that suggests climbing. If this is not the case then why are the children climbing it instead of all the other bridge railings on the Liffey?I would love to climb the bridge, but my good sense and an aversion to harm tell me otherwise. There are people (including children) who have less inhibition who will climb it. (have my mid twenties caught up with me already? – oh how it feels to get old!)
It would be a shame to let the council alter the bridge, they should get Calatrava or one of his plebs to come up with a solution. I already have a number of ideas which wouldn’t affect the design greatly.
Thanks bluefoam, your lighthearted approach gets the point across much better, glad to see i am not alone in my thoughts. It will be interesting to see what is actually done about the problem.
It is very sad that these people have nothing better to do with their time. I can’t understand how people can be so thick in this day and age!!! As a result of people playing with the bridge I am so worried that some a**hole is now going to destroy the look of this new structure. Afterall this is Ireland and in Ireland we haven’t a clue how to do anything right. I’d say stupid looking devices will be put on the bridge as a result of these idiots. If they fall in just leave them be because as far as I am concerned it’s their own fault if they do. Bloody a**holes.
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