Project history of Dublin’strongsstrong River Liffey bridges - bert.pdfVIP

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers Bridge Engineering 156 December 2003 Issue BE4 Pages 161^179 Michael Phillips Albert Hamilton Paper 13329 City Engineer, Dublin City Consultant; former Director, Centre Received 01/04/2003 Council, Ireland for Project Management, and Kent Accepted 22/08/2003 Professor of Project Management, University of Limerick, Ireland Keywords: bridges/river engineering Project history of Dublin’s River Liffey bridges M. Phillips and A. Hamilton A significant geographical feature of Dublin, the capital of called the Ford of the Hurdles. A masonry bridge, which was the Republic of Ireland, is that the River Liffey divides the known as the Bridge of Dublin (also referred to as the Old city into the north side and south side. As there has Bridge), replaced the original timber structure during the first always been significant traffic needing to cross the river, quarter of the thirteenth century. This bridge was quite wide ancient fords and ferries gave way to a series of bridges. It and was a ‘living bridge’; it was lined with houses and shops is assumed that the first stone bridge across the River and had towers at either end. The river was navigable by Liffey was built in the thirteenth century. Most of the seagoing vessels as far as this bridge.5 surviving bridge infrastructure was built in the nineteenth century. Four road bridges were built in the twentieth The river’s width within the city has over time been century. The first bridge crossing in t