New €15m bus and tram bridge to be built

A new €15m bridge will be built over Dublin’s River Liffey to carry busses and Luas trams across the city centre waterway.

Dublin City Council said the overpass, to be constructed downstream of O’Connell Bridge, will be funded by the Government’s Transport 21 plan.

Building work is due to start late next year and will take some 18 months.

The council said the new bridge will take bus traffic off O’Connell Bridge and feature wide pedestrian footpaths and cycleways connecting Marlborough Street and Hawkins Street.

It will incorporate flood protection walls which double up as public seating and landscaping and feature clear sides to give views of the river beneath.

“The bridge will have an elegant contemporary design,” said a city council statement.

“It will be a slender, single span, smooth concrete structure, with the underside of the bridge being designed to be as high above the water as possible so that river traffic is not impeded.”

Roughan & O’Donovan Consulting Engineers and Sean Harrington Architects were appointed in May to design the bridge.

The council said both have a proven track record of bridge design, with Roughan & O’Donovan having worked on the Taney LUAS Bridge in Dundrum as well as the M1 Boyne Bridge at Drogheda.

Projects by Mr Harrington include the Dublin Millennium Bridge.

Conservation Architect David Slattery has also being involved with the ambitious plan to ensure the historic quay walls are properly conserved during construction.

“The location of the abutments in the river will minimise the impact on the quays – and therefore traffic – during construction,” the council added.