William Dargan Bridge, opened in 2004, is a 162 metre

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

Dundrum, Dublin Dundrum (), originally a village in its own right, is an outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The area is located in the List of Dublin postal districts, postal districts of Dublin 14 and Dublin 16. Dundrum is home to the Dundrum Town Centre, the la ...

, Ireland. It carries the Green Line of the

Luas Luas (, Irish language, Irish: ; meaning 'speed') is a tram system in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. There are two main lines: the Green Line (Luas), Green Line, which began operating on 30 June 2004, and the Red Line (Luas), Red Line ...

over the busy Taney junction, of the R112 and R117 regional roads as well as the little-known Slang River. The bridge connects rail alignments which were formerly part of the

Harcourt Street railway line The Harcourt Street Railway Line () was a railway line that ran from '' Harcourt Street'' in Dublin through the southern suburbs to Bray. It was one of the Dublin and South Eastern Railway's two northern main lines, the other being the coastal ...

. The name commemorates

William Dargan William Dargan MRDS (28 February 1799 – 7 February 1867) was arguably the most important Irish engineer of the 19th century and certainly the most important figure in railway construction. Dargan designed and built Ireland's first rail ...

. The engineer who designed the Harcourt Street railway line, which much of the Green Line now follows. Roughan & O’Donovan provided full engineering design services for the bridge.

History

Construction started in October 2001. The deck, 1.325 metres deep, was constructed using

precast concrete Precast concrete is a construction product produced by casting concrete in a reusable molding (process), mold or "form" which is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to the construction site and maneuvered into place; examples i ...

shell segments that were glued and stressed together, before being filled with in-situ concrete. The 50 metre high pylon was made using

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

and 13 pairs of

high-tensile steel Carbon steel is a steel with carbon content from about 0.05 up to 2.1 percent by weight. The definition of carbon steel from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) states: * no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, cobalt ...

cables. Construction was completed on 2 August 2002, where, in front of several hundred onlookers,

Minister for Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

Seamus Brennan remotely tightened a stress block. The entire project had an approximate cost of €11 million. The first Luas passed over the bridge on 11 Feb 2004 during a test of the line. Adverts were placed in local media looking for suggestions on what to name the bridge. The final name was chosen by a committee set up by the

Railway Procurement Agency The Railway Procurement Agency () was a state agency of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in the Ireland, charged with the development of light railway and the future metro infrastructure. History The agency was established on 28 ...

. It included the Luas chief architect, Jim Quinlan, historian Briain MacAonghusa and a representative of

South Dublin County Council South Dublin County Council () is the local authority of the county of South Dublin, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities created by the Local Government (Dublin) Act 1993 to succeed the former Dublin County Council before its abolitio ...

. Proposals included; William Dargan,

Stephen Roche Stephen Roche (; born 28 November 1959) is an Irish former professional road racing cyclist. In a 13-year professional career, he peaked in 1987, becoming the second of only three cyclists to win the Triple Crown of victories in the Tour de ...

, Canon Harrington, and ''Suas Luas'' (suas being the Irish word for "up"). The bridge was official named the William Dargan Bridge by Seamus Brennan in a public ceremony on 19 July 2004. Where a ribbon was cut by Fr Dan Dargan, the great-grandson of William Dargan. After the death of Seamus Brennan in July 2008,

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

councilor Gerry Horkan proposed the bridge should be renamed after him, which was turned down.

Awards

* Irish Concrete Society Infrastructural Category Award 2002Kerr, Henry. (10 December 2018) ''Annual Awards 2002'' (PDF). Irish Concrete Society.
Available at https://concrete.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Annual-Awards-2002.pdf
Retrieved 31 August 2024..
Association of Consulting Engineers
of Ireland President’s Award for Excellence 2003

Gallery

References

{{reflist Railway bridges in the Republic of Ireland Dundrum Bridges completed in 2004 Cable-stayed bridges in Ireland Buildings and structures in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Bridges in County Dublin Luas 21st-century architecture in the Republic of Ireland