There was major traffic disruption in Dublin city yesterday after vandals drove a crane into the River Liffey, causing the closure of a stretch of the South Quays.
Evening peak-time traffic was gridlocked near the affected area as Dublin Corporation worked to retrieve the crane before high tide.
The corporation's head of engineering, Mr Tim Brick, admitted that the traffic disruption had been bad. "But it wasn't the meltdown we feared it would be", he added.
Traffic was diverted from the South Quays between O'Connell Street and Capel Street bridges, causing knock-on delays, the worst of which were reportedly on the North Wall.
Mr Brick said it was unfortunate that it was taking so long to retrieve the crane from the Liffey. However, the recovery effort required the use of a larger 400-tonne crane, which was "not easy to manoeuvre in an urban environment".
The rescue crane was installed early yesterday but its use was delayed by an electrical fault and lifting problems.
Mr Brick said that an investigation was under way to establish how the initial incident occurred. It appeared, he said, that vandals had climbed on to the pontoon overnight where the crane, in use for a restoration project, was parked.
"It looks like they hot-wired it somehow and it came off the pontoon", he said.
