Bridge repairs will bring big disruption

December 1994

Plans to strengthen Wexford Bridge in compliance with EU regulations on axle loads were welcomed by Wexford County Council at their December meeting, but many members expressed disappointment that such a measure has to be taken on a relatively new bridge.

Phil Callery, County Engineer, told the Council that the most economic solution was a steel girder bridge, for which the construction time was one year, and single lane traffic would be in effect for 48 weeks. The estimated cost of the scheme would be £3,739,000 and money would not be available until 1996.

Cllr. Michael D’Arcy said he supported the single lane idea rather than closing the bridge completely, as businesses depended on the flow of traffic. But he added it was a poor reflection on the people who built the bridge that it needed such work after just 35 years, when old stone bridges that are more than 200 years old do not need the same work carried out.

Cllr Jim Walsh wondered about the effect of salt water on a steel girder, and wondered if concrete would not be better. Mr Callery told him that steel would be better as steel technology is now very sophisticated, as evidenced, for example, by oil rigs in the North Sea.

He said that the present bridge is being eroded by chlorides and speculated that the erosion was partly due to the addition of chlorides in the concrete itself at the time of building as a setting agent, as the practice was commonplace at that time.

Cllrs Michael Sinnott and Padge Reck were among those who worried about the effect on traffic that the work would bring. Mr Callery replied that as work would not begin until 1996, the Council had time to sort that one out.