Macken Street Bridge

[shnaek]

It is a shame to hear that they are thinking of not building the Macken Street Bridge. It would be a landmark in Dublin, a city that needs some 'soft economics' as they call it. In Australia they sacked the architect of the Opera House as it way overran it's initial cost. And now what is the internationally recognised symbol of Australia?
I often think of Bilboa when I think of Dublin. Bilboa is about the same size, and had a sh*t public transport system and nothing worth visiting for.
Now it brings in millions of tourists a year, and it has a metro. That is forward thinking. Pity some of those planners can't emigrate over here.

 

[piggy]

Now it brings in millions of tourists a year, and it has a metro. That is forward thinking. Pity some of those planners can't emigrate over here

One of my all time favourites this one. We really, really, badly need a top notch metro in Dublin that spans the whole city, in my opinion. Instead we spend close to a billion on the LUAS :\

 

[cobalt]

bridge

Definitely a shame. [broken link removed] is the proposed design. Hopefully they'll find the money.

 

[piggy]

Re: bridge

Looks nice.

 

[Guest]

Re: bridge

YAC (Yet Another Calatrava)?

[broken link removed]

 

[cobalt]

bridge

One thing I don't get is that they're talking about making provision to accomodate Luas on it.

[One of the factors behind the high construction cost is] the fact that the bridge will be capable of accommodating a Luas line.

No Luas lines are planned for the area at present but Dublin City Council decided to factor in the possibility of a line in the future. It would also carry four traffic lanes, two bus corridors, two cycle ways and pedestrian paths.

Surely it makes more sense to keep Luas off it:
(1) The additional cost, as stated above.
(2) Overhead Luas lines (connecting through to the banks on each side) couldn't be supported from the bridge itself, otherwise it couldn't pivot without very complicated arrangements, and ships therefore couldn't pass.
(3) If they were to put the Luas cables really high above the bridge and not connected to it, so the bridge could pivot and ships would just pass under the Luas cables, it would totally detract from the bridge's appearance. Surely there are enough places Luas can go, without crossing a bridge so far downstream. We're not going to be getting rid of buses anytime soon; let them be the public transport across the Macken Street bridge.

 

[cobalt]

bridges

YAC (Yet Another Calatrava)?

It's only two! Though of course he did also design the [broken link removed] for the Ark in Temple Bar.

But the new pedestrian bridge being built at the moment at the bottom of Lombard Street (i.e. between the Matt Talbot bridge and the proposed Macken Street traffic bridge above) is designed by an Irish architecture firm - Brian O'Halloran and Associates.

The [broken link removed] I can find of it online is in the ireland.com archives so I'm not sure whether it'll display for those without a subscription, but here's a [broken link removed] too.

Just as interesting are some of the unsuccessful competition entries (for the Lombard Street pedestrian bridge, not the Macken Street bridge):
Mary Laheen - by day, while opening and night, closed
ABK - [broken link removed], [broken link removed] and [broken link removed]
Van Wylick - closed and open
Newenham Mulligan - [broken link removed] and [broken link removed]

Again, all these bridges - including the competition winner - were designed to open to allow ships up the river, so it would be daft if ships were prevented from getting to it by Luas cables over the Macken Street bridge downstream.

 

[Observer]

Re: bridges

If the opening section of bridge were shorter than a Luas tram, then the wires could stop just before this section and resume afterwards. (With an underground connecting cable) The tram would be fed by power first from one side to the rearmost connector on the tram and then from the other side to the forwardmost connector on the tram. Even if there was a small gap, the momentum of the Luas would easily carry it through the powerless section.

Mind you, not that it's necessarily a good idea, just saying it's technically doable.

 

[tacet]

Macken St bridge

I understand that design changes have lead to the estimated cost of the bridge increasing considerably.

Amongst other issues, the pylon needs to be constructed from exceptionally thick steel to be serviceable. A unique problem with this bridge is that the free end of the deck will deflect considerably once in the open position. This would be as big a problem if the pylon was central in the river, but that defeats the purpose, and would prevent shipping accessing the navigable channel.


Another issue is the lack of funding - though why the Docklands, Spencer Dock, and the Port couldn't shell out - as they will be the main beneficaries - is a bit clouded.

It would be a shame if this bridge did not go ahead, as it would be a suitable gateway to the city and would go a long way to redressing the monstrosity that is the East Link.

t.