Tomorrow.
The new Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy bridge over the River Barrow between Glenmore in Co Kilkenny and New Ross, Co Wexford, will be officially opened.
It is now Ireland’s longest bridge at 887m.
Pics via SkycamIreland
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Everything. As It Happens.
Did the Kennedy’s even contribute a penny to its construction? Quite why its named after the wife of a notorious crook like Joe Kennedy is beyond me?
Well, she should be judged in her own right not by whom she married. But I agree – what an odd name / person to choose to name this fine bridge after! Are they looking for Kennedy dollars? I’m not superstitious but it cannot be denied that there is a streak of bad luck associated with the Kennedy name – so to name a load-bearing bridge after them is ‘walking under that ladder’ I guess.
Indeed; it would be worse if named after philandering, crooked Joe.
As to how this may bring bad luck; the opening line from the project report (linked further down by Otis Blue) is slightly ominous:
“… there was a localised non-conformance at one of the 24 concrete downstands on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge that required corrective actions”.
(Could F.G’s Noone be accused of “localised non-conformance”?).
The story I heard was that the concrete or cement used, dissolved and had to be re-done.
No, they’re looking for American tourist dollars. New Ross would name a dog turd after a Kennedy.
Dublin, bursting at the seams, can’t get a metro, and yet Ballygobackwards gets a suspension bridge…
Leo has to prioritise shiny things for big Phil’s former constituency.
230 mil is a bargain to link the mega cities of Waterford and wexford . The 2,000 cars per day will certainly be thankful of the ten minute time saving.
Try 30.
if it’s anywhere near as good as that recent M11 extension I look forward to riding it
what a lovely ribbon of tarmac that one is!
empty, not a guard for miles, perfect surface, some nice gentle swoops and great cambers – conducive to VERY illegal speed :)
Cars?
You do realise that the rest of the country exists, people live there, and are as deserving of support as those in Dublin, no?
For sure.
But Dublin taxpayers pay for everything, so until we have an operational metro system (for example), I think we should put white elephants like the above on hold for a bit.
You do realise that the rest of the country pays taxes too, no?
;)
They do NOT and how dare you suggest such a thing!
They do, but the taxes they pay don’t cover their outgoings – the shortfall is made up by taxpayers from Dublin. The only counties that pay for themselves are Dublin, Cork and (AFAIR) Meath and Wicklow – every rural dweller is subsidised by those living in urban areas.
Which is fine, but when Dublin is starved for infrastructure while this type of white elephant is built, you can see why people living in cities might get a bit ticked off…
Aw sheesh! I got millie upset! Now Bertie will be along to admonish me…
And Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy never paid any taxes here!
(the REAL issue here)
But they need to name bridges after women…. and there are 0 Irish women worth naming a bridge after… so they went to America.
I long for the day we have a major piece of infrastructure named after twink
the naming of this bridge – a longspanning slightly bendy erection – was, in my view, a missed opportunity
I hereby name this the “zip up your mickey” bridge
the rest of the country already suffers enough from the chronic centralisation of jobs/services in this country and now this fella wants to ensure that any public expenditure outside of dublin is postponed until a dublin metro is built. jesus wept
The David Agnew Bridge then surely?
Ha! Rob wants to move anyone not working out of Dublin too..
Hey Gran – get a job in Tesco or it’s off to Leitrim with ya!
To be fair, its a critical piece of transit infrastructure linking the South and South West to Rosslare Europort and other locations. On the other hand the sum in excess of €200m that FG are proposing to spend on the upgrade of the 17km road from Castlebar to Wesport appears to have little justification. (The Ring Road!!!)
The bridge is a decent bit of design and engineering, I think. Loads of interesting video updates as the project progressed here.
https://www.n25newross.ie/project-updates/
Mental…
Shush! Stop talking sense! The Jackeens are upset!
But it’ll speed your journey from the Dublin melting pot to the nice quiet South East, where you Dubs can mansplain to your hearts content to the locals.
#thanks blushirts
Does it avoid the toilet that is New Ross ?
If so, it’s worth every cent.
the castle in new ross is mildly interesting
or that could have been somewhere else down that way