Macken St Bridge – Santiago Calatrava
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Bit of a height diference it seems! from the indo ..
By Jerome Reilly
Sunday July 26 2009
IT looks, to the casual observer, like a bridge too high. Now elegantly draped across the Liffey, the Samuel Beckett Bridge appears to tower over the quayside roadway on the southside of the river.
The vertiginous drop of more than a metre from bridge to tarmac on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay has some of the few remaining high- flyers in the IFSC wondering if their low-slung sports saloons will survive the trip from docklands to Dalkey.
But the loftiness of the new bridge, due to be opened next year, is part of a cunning plan and not a monumental blunder, Dublin City Council insists.
“The constructed level of the bridge’s south abutment is in accordance with its design levels, which specifically allows for sufficient headroom under the bridge to accommodate marine craft on the river,” project manager John Flanagan explained.
He added that the current construction works will introduce a carefully designed gradual incline between the bridge deck level and existing ground levels. That may sound suspiciously like a ramp, but the council are convinced that drivers will not notice the drop when they leave the bridge.
The 120m bridge, which is 48m high, will link Guild Street on the northside with Sir John Rogerson’s Quay on the southside — west of Cardiff Lane/Macken Street.
Dr Santiago Calatrava Valls, considered one of the world’s great architects, designed the Beckett Bridge. The bridge will have four traffic lanes, cycle tracks and footpaths, and can facilitate bus and light rail in the future.
– Jerome Reilly
@Peter Fitz wrote:
Dr Santiago Calatrava Valls, considered one of the world’s great architects, designed the Beckett Bridge. The bridge will have four traffic lanes, cycle tracks and footpaths, and can facilitate bus and light rail in the future. – Jerome Reilly
Since when have the RPA planned no cables? I’m struggling to see how it will work?
There won’t be any trams going over this bridge.
The design goes back to the ‘Platform for Change’ proposal for a line starting near the docklands station and heading to Lucan via a route that’s was parallel to the grand canal.
Since the RPA have now chosen a different route for a line to Lucan, this line heading over the bridge is dead.My apologies if none of this is new.
A few things I know about the bridge….
1 So far at least three swans have come to grief on the cables.
2 The Luas rails are not going in though there is provision for them if they change their minds!
3 The surfacing was finished last Sunday! Hooray!
4 There will be two lanes for traffic each side at about 3.25 metres wide and “footpaths” on
both sides.
5 The ends are currently about 2 feet higher than the surrounding road levels.
6 Will try to post pics of surfacing if they come out OKMy understanding is that, due to load restrictions, the outer lanes cannot take the strain of a bus lane.
The main spans of the bridge have been surfaced with heavy duty mastic asphalt to accept heavy traffic but the outside lanes have not for this very reason.
So…..pedestrians and cycles on the outside buses and others in the main centre spans.
1 The new surfacing going in showing the missing Luas rail on the seaward side of the bridge looking to the South Bank…..
and
2 this is how it was done.@Blacktop wrote:
My understanding is that, due to load restrictions, the outer lanes cannot take the strain of a bus lane.
You’re joking, right?
yeh jaysus, you have to be joking. I mean, come on…. does that mean buses can’t overtake on the bridge? No you have to be joking. Are heavy trucks banned?
Hang on, I thought there was no plan to take the Luas across this bridge anyway? The pavement work on the south side is making good progress although the road layout is still looking a bit strange with the big slope and the sharp corner off/onto the bridge from SJRQ, but I guess we’ll get used to it.
Can’t wait for the bridge to be finished, finally M&S will be a viable lunch option 😀
the point being poukai that the bridge was constructed with integrated tram tracks, whether trams go across it in the future or not – so surely it can manage the weight of a bus on its outer lanes.
See picture showing (not showing?) the missing Luas rail. (viewed from north end looking south, leaning tower of Guinness behind camera)
The two lanes on each side of the bridge spine (the luas rail lane and the one adjoining it to the left) are for motor traffic. 4 lanes in total
To the outside of these lanes, pedestrian and cycle lanes (footpaths?) on the extreme outside edges of the bridge behind barriers to protect from traffic. (2 in total.)
Hope this helps to clear it up a little.@Peter Fitz wrote:
the point being poukai that the bridge was constructed with integrated tram tracks, whether trams go across it in the future or not
Oh, right, missed that point…
The southbound carriageway looking north.
The northbound carriageway showing the footpath / cycleway and crash rails going in.
Has this thing got a completion/opening date ?
The timber handrail on the edge rail.
and a worm’s eye view!
(Just send the photography prize to the bridge and I’ll collect it later!)
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