Dublin is to get another pedestrian bridge over the Liffey, linking City Quay with Custom House Quay. However, unlike the Millennium footbridge, the latest one will swing open for maritime traffic.
The Dublin Docklands Development Authority announced yesterday that architects Brian O'Halloran and Associates and structural engineers O'Connor Sutton Cronin had been chosen to build it following an international competition.
The DDDA said it would now engage the winning team to design the bridge fully with a view to construction and completion in early 2004, subject to planning permission from Dublin City Council. The estimated cost is €3.5 million.
The bridge, to be located some 300 metres downriver of the Matt Talbot Bridge, is designed to link the Government and cultural area around Merrion Square with the International Financial Services Centre in the Custom House Docks.
It will span the Liffey from the Mariners' memorial at City Quay to Stack A, an early 19th-century warehouse on the Custom House Docks site. This building, once targeted for a science museum, is being developed as a retail and trade exhibition centre.
Selected from more than 80 entries from around the world, the winning design was chosen by the jury for its "understated elegance". The runners-up were architects Ahrends Burton and Koralek and structural engineers Kellogg Brown Root.
Mr Cyril O'Neill, of Brian O'Halloran and Associates, who worked on the chosen bridge design with Mr Paul Healy, of O'Connor Sutton Cronin, said they were "over the moon" about winning the competition.
He described their scheme as "a symmetrical bridge of twinned cantilevered cradles suggesting a formal maritime gateway to the city". The tapering steel cradles would swing through 90 degrees to open the central span of 44 metres for ships.
A minimum clear opening of 33 metres was required by the competition brief.
"The structural form of our bridge is based on a simple balanced cantilever, so it would require very little power to move the two central opening sections," Mr O'Neill said.
The winning designers believe their bridge will have a "permeable and dramatic silhouette". Its deck is suspended from the twin cradles of the bridge. Only the material to be used for its surface has yet to be decided.
The DDDA's chief executive, Mr Peter Coyne, said he was confident that the bridge would be an excellent addition to Dublin's series of river crossings. "It would further animate the quays by providing greater and easier pedestrian access," he said. The bridge would also link residential areas on both sides of the river.
At present there is no bridge between the Matt Talbot and East Link bridges, although a dramatic suspension bridge is planned on the axis of Guild Street.
An exhibition of all 80-plus entries for the bridge competition is being held in the National College of Ireland, Mayor Square, off Sheriff Street, starting today and running until December 19th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
