Dublin got its third new pedestrian bridge over the Liffey at the weekend with the lowering into place of the new Seán O'Casey footbridge in the docklands.
The bridge, which links Custom House Quay with City Quay, is expected to open to pedestrians later next month after landscaping and other construction work is carried out at the site.
The bridge is directly opposite "chq", a large retail, dining and leisure development which is due to open later this year on the site of Stack A, the 19th century warehouse.
This is the third new bridge over the Liffey in the past five years, following the opening of the Millennium Bridge, near the Ha'penny Bridge, and the James Joyce Bridge at Blackhall Place in 2003.
The new €6 million bridge is in two sections which swing through 90 degrees to allow boats to pass through. It spans almost 100m, weighs over 320 tonnes and sits on two Chinese granite piers.
The design was selected from more than 80 entries in an international competition organised by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) in 2002. The winning design came from Cyril O'Neill of Brian O'Halloran and Associates. He recently left the firm to join HKR. Mr Paul Healy of O'Connor Sutton Cronin was the structural engineer on the project.
Mr O'Neill designed the refurbishment of Heuston Station, as well as the courthouse and the Government offices in Dundalk.
Mr O'Neill said the complex moving mechanism, involving hydraulic rams, had been designed by the British mechanical engineer Richard Parrott. "It's extremely specialised and I don't think there's anything like it here. Sadly, Richard died last August, so he never got to see it finished."
The bridge construction was an international effort as it was built in Poland with British sub-contractors and French, German and Danish suppliers. It took more than 10 days to bring the bridge over from Poland on a giant barge. The barge anchored in Dublin Bay early on Saturday morning but then had to wait until the ferry traffic had left the port before it slowly made its way up the Liffey.
The Mersey Mammoth, a 250-tonne floating crane barge, was brought over from Liverpool to manoeuvre the bridge into position. After some teething problems, one leaf of the bridge was lowered into position on Saturday evening, and the final part was put in place early yesterday.
The arrival of the bridge was a little later than expected. When the project was first announced, its targeted completion date was early last year. That was later extended to December but bad weather in Poland slowed down its completion. Then blustery sea conditions caused more delays in the journey from Gdansk.
Peter Coyne, chief executive of the DDDA said the bridge would make "a huge difference" to pedestrian access between the north and south docklands and would bring the International Financial Services Centre closer to Dublin 2 and 4.
"The introduction of this stunning new bridge is another example of how the docklands is rapidly becoming a riverside area capable of matching some of the world's best waterfront developments."
A relieved Mr O'Neill said it was wonderful to see his finished design in place. "It took a long time and it's just great to see it here at last. Now I'm dying to see it operating."
