The construction of a world record-breaking bridge in Ireland’s southeast, which will redefine expectations for bridge engineering both nationally and internationally, and a coastal mobility route in Co. Dublin are among six projects recognised by Engineers Ireland and ESB in a newly unveiled Engineering Excellence Digital Series.
Launched earlier this week in recognition of the work of Ireland’s talented engineers, the Engineering Excellence Digital Series aims to recognise and showcase inspiring engineering endeavour in 2020 and its positive impact on society. Following an open, free-to-enter competition organised by Engineers Ireland and supported by ESB, six winning projects have been chosen to be profiled as part of the series through video stories on Engineers Ireland’s and ESB’s social channels.
Here, we take the opportunity to recognise the two winning projects and those who were highly commended in the Engineering Infrastructure and Buildings category:
Winning projects
N25 New Ross Bypass PPP incorporating the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge over the River Barrow
Constructed by BAM-Dragados with the detailed design undertaken by Arup, in collaboration with Carlos Fernandez Casado, this project comprises of a 14km bypass which includes an 887m long, nine-span, three-tower extradosed Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge.
The structure is part of the N25 New Ross Bypass scheme which strengthens connections between the communities of Wexford and Kilkenny, while also enhancing local and regional connectivity. By reducing congestion, improving road safety and opening economic opportunities, the bridge has improved the lives of residents on both sides of the River Barrow and, indeed, the much wider community.
The bridge includes four extradosed concrete spans; two of which are 230m in length. The construction method, balanced cantilever, in conjunction with the asymmetry of the tower’s cables on each tower, led to a main cantilever of 140m at the longest stage of construction, a world record for concrete deck extradosed bridges.
Structural analysis tools, such as explicit time dependent creep curves and step-by-step non-linear iterative analysis, were used. The largest cables consist of 125 strands and went through a full-scale fatigue test of two million cycles in a lab in Chicago, one of only two labs worldwide that have the capacity to test cables of this size.
Ireland’s longest bridge will now stand as a world-class 21st century engineering structure. The consciously chosen asymmetry of the three towers, with the central tower slightly higher than the side towers, also provides this structure with unique personality, contributing to the Wexford-Kilkenny skyline. The opening of the N25 New Ross Bypass on 29 January 2020 was a landmark day for the designers and contractors and for Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Wexford County Council, Kilkenny County Council and the technical advisors for the scheme, Mott MacDonald Ireland.
The Coastal Mobility Route
The Coastal Mobility Route, delivered by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council with project partners, Clonmel Enterprises and the National Transport Authority, is a two-way segregated cycle-lane with buff surfacing, extending over 3.6km in two uninterrupted sections from Newtown Avenue in Blackrock, Co. Dublin to Coal Quay Bridge, and from Queens Road to the Forty Foot in Sandycove. With a further 0.9km section through quiet streets, the route is approx. 4.5km in length.
Due to restrictions in movement associated with the current pandemic, there was a significant increase in walking and cycling, with a 100% increase in cycling recorded on the coastal route by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown in May 2020, compared with the same period in 2019. Pedestrians often faced situations where there was not enough footway width to maintain two-metre physical distancing, which led to people stepping off the footpath.
In response, the Coastal Mobility Route, delivered in less than eight weeks by a multi-disciplinary team comprising of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council engineers, architects and construction managers, reconfigured the public realm to respond to COVID-19 risks, creating safer and improved facilities for walking and cycling. The project also enhanced the public space to provide safe and inviting places, that the public can visit, spend time in and enjoy while supporting local businesses as they reopen.
With about 20,000 cyclists utilising the route each week, this Coastal Mobility Route now promotes and facilitates a necessary shift to walking and cycling, along this strategic coastal transport corridor, by delivering safe and enjoyable sustainable transport for all ages and abilities.
Highly Commended projects
N56 Kilkenny to Letterilly Road Scheme by Fox Building & Engineering Ltd, Maccaferri and Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions
The N56 Kilkenny to Letterilly Road Scheme is situated in one of the most scenic and pristine environments in Ireland. This scheme addressed a section of the N56 which narrowed significantly as it rounded above the Gweebarra River near Lettermacaward. The Employer, Donegal County Council, envisaged widening the road using a combination of bored piles, kingpost piles and precast panels. However, a value engineering solution delivered by the project team, consisting of Fox Building & Engineering Ltd, Maccaferri and Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions, removed all of the concrete and steel works and replaced the slope with a reinforced soil slope up to 18.5m high while still allowing traffic to pass during construction. The new slope’s grass façade provides an attractive finish and a much-enhanced alternative to concrete panels. The geogrids, high-quality fill materials and gabions used significantly less embodied energy than the specimen piled design and facilitated the safe and reliable structure that fits in with its beautiful environment.
Osberstown Sludge Treatment Facility by Veolia
Veolia successfully increased the capacity of the Osberstown Wastewater Treatment Plant for Kildare County Council and Irish Water so that it now serves a population equivalent of 360,000 people and numerous local industries. Following this success, the Veolia team were tasked with the challenge of upgrading the adjacent Osberstown Sludge Treatment Facility. This facility processes all wastewater sludge for County Kildare.
Veolia’s ground-breaking approach to the project combined innovative technologies to deliver Advanced Anaerobic Digestion to create an energy self-sufficient Sludge Treatment Facility that reduced CO2 emissions by more than 8,000 tonnes per annum; formed a ‘blueprint’ for sustainable Phosphorus re-use well into the future and created huge savings, including a saving of circa €9M of CAPEX ensuring the viability of the project and €2M per annum (at design loading) of OPEX. The project also delivered substantial energy savings that will allow the equivalent of over 2,700 households to be provided with thermal energy from natural gas.
Royal Canal Premium Cycle Route Phase 2 by Roughan & O’Donovan Consulting Engineers, Grafton Architects, Blackwood Associates Architects, Cunnane Stratton Reynolds, Kevin Cleary & Associates, CRDS Ltd. and Jons Civil Engineering Ltd.
Phase 2 of the Royal Canal Premium Cycle Route, which runs from Sheriff Street to North Strand Road, is a truly transformational project. By reusing an extensive brownfield site in Dublin’s inner city, the National Transport Authority and Dublin City Council have opened up a previously underused section of the Royal Canal to provide an important commuter artery for cyclists and pedestrians and create a high quality amenity – for leisure, exercise and social contact - for the local community.
Located in the heart of Dublin’s north inner city, the project weaves together a high-quality cycle track, footway, linear park, pontoon, viewing plaza and a multi-span viaduct spanning the live Rail into and out of Connolly Station to create a place for locals to cycle, walk the dog, meet their neighbours and build the social glue that binds communities together. This scheme has given the people of inner-city Dublin an amenity to be proud of, a renewed sense of community and a reconnection with the area’s historic infrastructure and green space.
To find out more about the Engineering Excellence Digital Series, visit: https://www.engineersireland.ie/Professionals/Events/Featured-events/Excellence-Awards/Engineering-Excellence-Digital-Series