brunel
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can’t wait to see the built version of the bridge… it is after all a big change from existing bridges on the liffey, i.e. a tied arch with its structure above road level… but considering the backdrop i suppose it is good to have something ‘lift’ the area.
i presume as with all this bridges it has been painted white… will be interesting to see how long it takes to turn black from all the traffic on the quays !!
getting back for a moment to similar bridges, this bridge by calatrava have a very similar concept to the macken st bridge…
http://www.construir.com/Econsult/Construr/Nro63/document/puente.htm
one of the few pictures to give a true impression of the Blackhall bridge:
nice background setting !!!well that obviously just a case of the web guy getting the pictures mixed up… can happen to anyone !!
Well it looks as if the IRFU don’t really know what to do now either… you’d think they’d be able to come up with a few ideas themselves but obviously not:
http://www.irishrugby.ie/newspage/24670.html
I don’t really like the way the GAA has been bashed above. Granted the ‘rule’ is incredibly stupid and should have been abolished a long time ago without the need for a vote, but they have done more for this country than any other sporting body and deserve to get every penny from the government.
One really has to wonder what the IRFU are doing now… they have sat back while the Scots, Welsh and English have proceeding to build fantastic stadiums and left Lansdowne crumble… for a long time they were very rich indeed but failed to act…
Croke Park will always be Irelands most utilised stadium and if it cannot be sustainable then there is little hope for any other proposal… remembering that we only have around 3 home rugby internationals, and even in 2003 (a busy year for the FAI) only 3 soccer internationals – two of which are against ALBANIA and GEORGIA !! How many people are going to get into a car and be stuck in traffic for hours out in Abbotstown for those games ?!?
Lots of problems i know, but for me the only solution is to get the government, local reps, and the IRFU/FAI at a table and sort out a way to turn Lansdowne through 90 degrees…
The number of matches played there will be the same as now, the capacity of a new stadium will be the same as the old (50,000 say) and the transport infrastructure is there… Give the residents a host of new amenities (say crèches, new roads, decent parks etc etc) and everybody can be happy…
Argh just remembered… in case you couldn’t be bothered registering, here is the article text (i cut some of the end stuff as the post was way too long):
World Cup stadiums turn to empty white elephants
A MONTH ago, Japan’s shimmering World Cup stadiums were packed with ecstatic fans. Today, the nation’s 10 new sporting venues stand mostly empty, occasionally hosting sparsely attended games between Japanese football teams.
The Nagai Stadium in Osaka filled with up to 45,000 fans for World Cup games in June. Locals begged for tickets to watch England play Nigeria and two days later, the whole country’s eyes turned to it as Japan beat Tunisia.
This month, the ground returned to its regular role as home to Cerezo Osaka, a team in the second flight of Japan’s J-League, and the 6,500 who attended the match against Mito Hollyoak looked lost amid the empty spaces in the stands.
But Nagai is a stadium that at least has a clear role beyond the World Cup. Japan spent €4.5bn on facilities for the event and now faces the question of how to justify its futuristic stadiums.
The cost was three times what the French spent in 1998, even though Japan was hosting only half the tournament. The South Koreans spent about €1.5bn on stadiums that will also have limited use.
Civic pride clearly played a major role in the construction of several venues, including the 60,000-capacity Saitama Arena in an area usually dismissed as a dormitory suburb of Tokyo.
Four existing football grounds with capacities of 50,000 or more, including the National Stadium in Tokyo, were not used for the tournament, and little serious thought was given to the role of the new stadiums after the World Cup.
A 1996 artist’s impression of the Saitama Arena showed a capacity crowd cheering a game of American football a game less popular in Japan than in England. This month there was delight when the ground recorded a crowd of 58,000 for a soccer game featuring the popular Urawa Reds, a local side.
Yet the stadium will only serve as an occasional venue for the team. Fans prefer the club’s original ground, within walking distance of Saitama town centre.
……”
Croker is indeed a fantastic development… people can say all they want about the GAA being a backward organisation but when it comes to capital developments they are so far ahead of the FAI and IRFU that it is not even funny…
I think it is quite interesting to note that there has been very little talk of the exact cost of the new Hogan Stand. If one remembers, the GAA were very forthcoming with the cost details of the new Cusack, i.e. £35million with 50% of the cost coming from the corporate sections etc. The fact that Sisk got the contract without it going to tender is understandable, and rising costs were to be expected, but it would be interesting to know how much Ãt cost in the end… well worth it of course as the GAA have a real use for such a big stadium…
One has to wonder therefore the eventual cost of any Stadium Ireland development, taking into account the time it will take to build it and inflation (was told by a QS some time back that it was running at 1% per month !!).
Interesting article in todays (Saturday) Indo about the ‘White Elephants’ the World Cup stadiums in Japan are turning into… Just hope Bertie gets his head together and builds a decent 50,000 stadium in a central location in Dublin…
Interesting section of website of above organisation
[This message has been edited by brunel (edited 06 February 2002).]
ya was always scared shitless (excuse pathetic pun) when in those loos… in out asap no messin around…
[This message has been edited by brunel (edited 06 February 2002).]
Well there was a major plan drawn up a few years back to overhaul the entire park/square. This plan included demolition of the existing toilets and replacing them with the more modern cubicle versions.
The existing toilets were pretty bad and few people used them, so I doubt many will miss them… and with good auld Supermacs across the way…
But I’m curious as to know whether the whole plan is under way… here’s hoping…
And while they’re gone people can go here instead… http://www.cybertoilets.com/
Does that mean that the re-structuring of the square is finally going ahead ?!? And have the plans been changed from those originally prepared by Mitchell ?!?
I really hope it’s happening… will make such a huge difference to the place… was a pretty good design imho…
[sarcasm] but what will happen to the trees ?!?
[/sarcasm][This message has been edited by brunel (edited 05 February 2002).]
not wanting to prolong this… but…
it would mean shutting the school grounds for the best part of 18 months. the disruption couldn’t be tolerated
Perfectly reasonable and just argument against such a development…
Considering recent and ongoing events both world wide and local will the above proposal put childrens lives unnecessarily at risk.
mmmmmmm….
ANYWAY good to see people getting together and meeting with residents, business people etc at an early stage to discuss possible developments before everything is done and dusted with only a ‘yes/no’ answer required… long may it continue…
No person has suggested a school would be targeted.
I just beleive that it would be less safe for the children to play on top of a public car park. It’s as simple as that.
There are tons of explosives unacounted for.To begin with for some strange reason I seemed to have thought before that the carpark was to be built under the school itself which would be unusual !!
However Plumber having said that u never suggested that the school would be targeted u finish by saying that there are tons of explosives unaccounted for… so what are u implying ?!?
I think it’s absolutely crazy to think that the IRA/INLA/UVF/UFF/Al-Qaeda/ETA/whoever would think of putting explosives in a carpark in south Dublin… why would they want to do such a thing ?? Linking a carpark and explosives is a bit much for me…
As for the ‘safety’ of the children… I don’t really see the huge problem… kids play on public squares all the time (well at least in the rest of the world… haven’t seen many on Smithfield lately
) The carpark would obviously (hopefully !) be well designed so it’s not going to collapse… fumes would be extracted in a proper fashion… ok not a pretty site during the construction period but…Anyway I’m a little mystified by the whole link to explosives… maybe NIMBY is creeping to a whole new level…
I realise people’s kids are involved here so i suppose it’s not a joking matter…
However I really think that people are over reacting here… to think of ‘terrorists’ targeting a school full of children is crazy… ok so people are worried after ‘September 11th’ but we’ve had ‘terrorism’ on this island for hundreds of years and I really don’t see how the US and bin Landen issue has made that threat any greater.
If for some reason ‘terrorists’ do want to target a school then they can park the car outside the school… but to even think of that seems ludicrous to me…
It sounds a little strange to put a car park under an existing building when one considers the construction constraints, but if designed properly the ‘health and safety risks’ to the children should be minimal (think of schools on main roads with large trucks and busses passing by… have lived beside a multi-story car park for a short while and they’re not all that noisy as the cars are driving so slow… main road is much worse…)
Plumber u are obviously close to the situation and are directly affected by this so I don’t want to be disrespectful at all, but to be thinking of car bombs exploding and harming the school kids is a bit much in my opinion… way too much in fact…
If one was to extrapolate such an attitude then we wouldn’t be building very much today… mmmmm stadium would be a perfect high profile target…
Again strange place for a car park but global terrorists targeting a school in Terenure ?!?!?
[This message has been edited by brunel (edited 01 February 2002).]
Not sure I´m in agreement with all of Joey´s comments… granted the Barca bus system is good… however Barca also has an extensive Metro system, along with an urban rail system (which has a link to the airport)… and the centre of the city is still clogged with traffic !! Therefore if u were to cut the Metro and urban rail systems I honestly wonder how well a bus system ALONE can begin to solve a city´s traffic problems…
I think Dublin badly needs this Metro… granted getting the QBCs working should be kept a priority but QBCs will always be limited in Dublin as they can´t go very far in most areas without having to rejoin the normal traffic flow… a LUAS system will also have to deal with on-street traffic as well as Dublins very well disciplined pedistrians !! That said the sight of an oncoming train should be reason enough to get the f#ck off the road !!
A metro is one of the few/only (??) means of transporting significant numbers of people quickly and freely… and completely independent of above ground happenings… ok it will cost but what Metro system has ever been cheap ?!? But what city regret the investment ?!?
Stockholm is another case where one has a fantastic metro system… an urban rail system and pretty good bus service all combined to provide a damn good public transport network… the road network is pretty good too… but are there still holdups and traffic jams ??? OF COURSE THERE ARE… it is close to imposible to remove traffic jams from any urban area as people will always be tempted to use their car…
Thing is in Dublin one usually little alternative… and considering the urban sprawl that is Dublin, cars will always be necessary…. hopefully LUAS, QBCs, DART, ARROW AND METRO can combine to ease the situation and give people a valid alternative…
Anyway in Barca for the week so don´t want to waste too much time in an internet cafe… that said €1.20 for 1 hour of damn fast interet connection is not bad… computers even have those cool flat screens, webcam and phone…
