Macken St Bridge – Santiago Calatrava

Wonder will it be able to cope with these new ‘Supercube’ trucks…

i’ve realised what makes someone really funny is not telling lots of original jokes or quips but telling the same joke to many different people

the same goes for these bridges…

i was very confused when my illustrations teacher in college told you find a stlye and stick with it, you don’t come up with a appropriate style for each project…

there all nice bridges but as you pointed out he said oh yes harp that’ll sell it to the irish…

but at the same time i don’t like the bridges at all its like we doing some urban regenreation like get catrava in.. now we have the same bridge in many different cities same goes for making oconnell street look european

This piece from Alan Stanford in the Indo

A couple of things, apparently unconnected, caught my eye in the paper over the last couple of days. It would appear that Dublin City Council is now getting cold feet over the cost of a new bridge over the Liffey in the docks area. The bridge in question has been designed by Santiago Calatrava, who has graced the Liffey with another of his designs, at a far shorter crossing, upstream. The cost, it seems, has grown from an initial €20 million to an estimated €38 million. You all know the formula. When you want a builder to do something in the house, take the estimate and double it and you get something like the real figure.

It’s the same with cities. Whatever needs doing will always cost more than they tell you it will. But usually it’s because they haven’t factored in all the possibilities. With this bridge it seems they have. Not only is it to have four lanes for traffic but space for a possible Luas line as well, even though there is no Luas line planned for the area yet. There will also be pedestrian and cycle lanes. All in all a bridge for all of us to use with ease comfort and space. And just in case a ship wants to go upstream of it, the whole thing will pivot to let it pass. In other words, somebody or possibly some group of planners have thought long and hard and decided exactly what will be needed, not just for the next few years, but into the foreseeable future and then planned for it.

And then the panic starts. The price has risen. Then the cost of building, steel, workers, tea and sandwiches and any other possible excuse will be used to talk down the price or the design or worse still, cancel the whole thing. And then, in 20 years time, when the gridlock of the Dublin streets has finally claimed its first victim of ‘starvation by traffic jam’, someone in the City Council will say: “Let’s build a bridge and wouldn’t it have been better to have done it 20 years ago when prices were cheaper?”

It’s a rare thing for any politician to plan for anything more than five years ahead; that being the gap between their being elected and the next time they will have to face the electorate. Long-term planning is something usually done by civil servants and undone by politicians who cut expenditure to impress the voters with their fiscal rectitude, because where grandiose ideas may get votes, long-term cost doesn’t. But where such expenditure is all that lies between us and transport stagnation, spending, however much it might hurt, is what we must face.

We live in a country that is growing rapidly. In the first 50 years of this State we cut back on practically everything that would get us moving. We axed a perfectly good rail network which, next to their parliamentary and judicial system and their architecture, was the best thing perfidious Albion left us.
We failed for far too many years to invest in our roads and failed even to recognise where those roads may need to be created. We have never recognised that public transport and the movement of people around our cities and country is a necessity, not a luxury. Public transport should not be expected to break even, much less make a profit. It is an expense we all should bear in order for the nation to work efficiently.

All of our major cities are dissected by a river – the Liffey, Lee, Shannon and Corrib. Indeed, Galway has the addition of a lake as well as a river and Cork has two branches of the Lee. Whatever about the other cities, and I am sure it is as true of them with their rivers, the Liffey is the single biggest traffic obstacle in the city of Dublin. Traffic must either run beside it, across it, or eventually, when the M50 is widened and the tunnel complete, around it. Therefore any progress we can make in bridging it must be grasped with both hands and quickly. And don’t count the cost in euro, count it in comfort, efficiency and progress. Otherwise they’ll use the same excuse to block the Metro as well.

from the bottom of this article….
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2004/0802/1008849953HM3LIFFEYBUS.html

Meanwhile, the superstructure for the new Macken Street Bridge is currently being built in Poland and will be carried up on pontoons to its location next December. Last week it was reported that rising costs of the complex steel structure might force a review of the project which was originally opposed by local residents.

i figured that was the error okay

Does anyone know whats happening with the Calatrava bridge?The Ben Quinn article talks about ‘intentions of interest being sought’ that was nearly a year ago. 🙁

I wonder will this be announced tomorrow?

Dublin’s Maritime Gateway Beckons

The Samuel Beckett Bridge, Dublin City’s newest bridge, is due to span the maritime gateway to Dublin in 2008.

Beckett Bridge, near Macken Street in the Dublin Docklands, will have four traffic lanes with cycle tracks and footpaths on either side of the bridge, while being capable of opening to accommodate maritime traffic.

This landmark structure, of unique character, will have a curved profile leaning northwards resulting in a dramatic shape giving the appearance of a harp lying on it’s side.

Designed by the internationally acclaimed Santiago Calatrava Valls, who also designed the James Joyce Bridge, Beckett Bridge will be constructed by Graham Hollandia Joint Venture. Graham Construction have carried out a number of major projects including Taney Bridge in Dundrum while Hollandia have completed a number of high profile works including London Eye.

The total cost of the project is estimated at €47 million, which will also include a major upgrade of the approach roads. With onsite construction starting within weeks it is estimated the project will be due for completion in September 2008.

In celebrating Beckett’s centenary year, Mr. John O’Donoghue T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, welcomed the decision by Dublin City Council to name the new Calatrava-designed bridge after Dublin’s own Samuel Beckett. Now Dublin has the privilege of acknowledging and honouring yet another one of the immortals of world literature.

For further information please telephone Dublin City Council’s Press Office at 2222170 or 086 8150010 or email info@dublincity.ie

Notes to Editors

The bridge will be a cable-stayed, steel box girder structure with a span of 120 metres between north and south quay walls. An asymmetric shape will be provided through the positioning of the pylon outside the navigation channel at a point approximately 28 metres from the south quay.

More….

The steel cable-stay pylon will have a curved profile leaning northward to a point 46 metres above water level and as a result of this dramatic shape the bridge will have the appearance of a harp lying on it’s side.

Beckett Bridge will be capable of opening through an angle of 90 degrees, which will accommodate marine traffic to the section of the river upstream of the proposed bridge site. This will be achieved through a rotational mechanism housed in the base of the pylon.

The central axis of the bridge is aligned with Guild Street on the northern side of the River Liffey and it will cross the river at right angles to connect with Sir John Rogerson’s Quay at a location approximately 70 meters west of Cardiff Lane.

Environmental improvement works will be carried out in conjunction with the bridgeworks on Macken Street, Cardiff Lane, Guild Street and Seville Place.

The project is being funded by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Dublin Docklands Development Authority and from Dublin City Council’s own resources

So an official completion date has been announced

I was beginning to wonder if we would ever see this project come on. I wonder will the Mahon Bridge be tackled at the same time (the section of Pearse Street at Grand Canal Dock)

How do you mean TP?