Dublin City Council is to replace a lifting bridge over the Grand Canal in a move which will permanently restrict the passage of some boats between the canal and the Liffey.
The Inland Waterways Association of Ireland, which has campaigned from the 1950s for the preservation of the Grand Canal, has expressed regret at the move but said it accepted that traffic volumes on Pearse Street had made it inevitable.
The Grand Canal runs from the Liffey through 44 locks to join the Shannon at Shannon Harbour in Co Offaly, some 132km (82miles) from Dublin.
It was once a major route for the transportation of goods between Dublin and the provinces, notably barrels of Guinness, which were transported on barges owned by the brewery.
At present, boats of any height can navigate from the Liffey to the Ringsend basin at the start of the canal, but MacMahon's bridge at Bolands Mills must be opened for taller boats to continue as far as the inner basin. The headroom under the bridge is just 2.48m (8 ft 3in). Boats requiring additional headroom must notify Waterways Ireland to have the bridge raised.
Dublin City Council says that it wants to replace the current bridge - it says it is susceptible to fatigue - with a fixed bridge which will take four lanes of traffic instead of the current two.
The council applied for Part V111 planning permission in July 2005 and a public consultation period elicited no submissions. The council is currently demolishing a nearby house containing the bridge-lifting mechanism.
While the imposition of a fixed bridge will permanently restrict access to the inner basin from the Liffey, the Inland Waterways Association says that this will make little difference in practice, as the bridge is seldom lifted.
A spokesman said that tall boats could not go beyond the inner basin and continue along the Grand Canal as a second road bridge and a railway bridge both had restrictive headroom.
Given the volumes of traffic across the bridge and leading into Pearse Street, it was a situation the association "couldn't win".
The spokesman added that the Dublin Boat Rally would still congregate in the Ringsend basin.
Waterways Ireland is currently restoring the Royal Canal navigation with the intention of reopening it all the way to the Shannon. The canal is currently navigable as far as Abbeyshrule, Co Longford, but it is expected to be open as far as Richmond Harbour, a junction with the Shannon, inside two years.
