Niall

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”.

Greg, O’Connell Street redeveloped by 2008, you say…….more like 2108, at the present rate!

Whitecube, you have to admit that we Irish do have a bit of a lack of civic pride, parts of the country are filthy and shabby and some people JUST DON’T CARE! Outsiders are constantly shocked by it, a bit of tidiness, cleanliness and consideration for others wouldn’t go amiss. The politicians should take a lead. It is not a question of loving your country.. it’s just how much you do.. Anyone who really does would take a bit of pride in it..

The metro in Bilbao is wonderful, Norman Foster entrances and white interior Wow!

How come Lisbon, Athens and Bilbao all had metro before us? Poorer countries by a long shot. Answers on a postcard to Mary O’Rorke et al …

RORY W. I COULDN’T AGREE MORE!!!!!!!!!

IT HAS BEEN ABOUT TEN YEARS AND WILL BE ANOTHER 10 YEARS AT LEAST BEFORE THE POWERS TO BE DO ANYTHING. WELL SAID!

Besides the government doing something about the appalling carnage on our roads…..

The Monumnent of Light and O’Connell Street sorted out (though I think could be waiting a long time)

The Loop Bridge to be cleared of advertising and something done to it, It looks hideous

Some action to clean up the Liberties and pump some money into the area around Thomas Streert/Cornmarket

Would be nice if government made a decsion on Metro…. a circle line I always thought would be a good start

and finally, fast food restaurants to be forced to keep the outside of their premises clean!!!!!!

In response to Gehard ridiculous comments.
I think that the spike is a good investment of taxpayers money. It will become a landmark unique to Dublin which will serve similar purposes, such as the Eiffel Tower, Sidney Opera House and the Empire State Building. All of these projects were innovative, and all received much conservative crititism. The above all became renowned tourist locations. This extra revenue compensated for all the taxpayers money.
As for the foreign architect who won the competition, has Gehard forgot that the competition was also open to Irish entries.