In the first article in this series, Stephen Cummins and Andrew O'Connell outline the unique design and the inherent engineering challenges of the Nelson Street Cycleway and explain how it works together with the Canada Street Bridge. The Canada Street Bridge has a unique structure. The design philosophy that was adopted endeavoured to find a subtle balance between providing something simple, sculptural and elegant while also highlighting the complex engineering. For this reason, the ...

The vibrant Nelson Street Cycleway and Canada Street Bridge (Te Ara I Whiti: The Lightpath) is a spectacular realisation of the New Zealand’s Transport Agency’s (NZTA’s) vision to provide world-class cycling infrastructure throughout each major town and city in New Zealand. This new philosophy is being orchestrated through the NZTA’s Urban Cycleways Programme, with a view toward providing each town and city in New Zealand with a more liveable/sustainable attractive transport ...

[caption id="attachment_32163" align="alignright" width="259"] William Dargan: engineer, entrepreneur and humanitarian[/caption] In 1867, a great Irishman was laid to rest. An honour guard of 700 rail-workers and a funeral cortege of 230 carriages mournfully processed to Glasnevin Cemetery and his mortal remains were reverentially placed beside that of another great Irishman, the ‘Great Emancipator’ himself, Daniel O’Connell. But who was this man who was so greatly honoured? An ...

“Well, sir, there's nothing on earth, Like a genuine, bona fide Electrified, six-car monorail, What'd I say? Monorail! What's it called? Monorail! That's right! Monorail!” The mention of monorails today invokes the classic Simpsons’ song above and its associated imagery of expensive, useless, ‘white elephant’ infrastructure. However, the reality is that monorail systems are used extensively in the cities of some of the most technologically advanced societies in the world and have become ...

With significant economic development in the 1990s and 2000s came the construction of the motorways in Ireland. In 2000, the network extended to approximately 350km. This increased to 1,224km by 2010, when the last of the inter-urban dual carriageways (mostly motorways) linking Dublin and the other major cities was completed. The National Roads Authority (now incorporated into Transport Infrastructure Ireland [TII]) oversaw the delivery of a massive road-building programme, which now ...

Engineers Ireland continued its strong focus at maintaining and supporting links with its regional branches as it arranged for a representation earlier in the year at the annual Engineers Ireland Australia/New Zealand Region Saint Patrick’s Day Seminar, held this year at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne, Australia. ICE president Sir John Armitt earlier this year delivered his presidential address, ‘Civil engineers: Shaping ourselves and our world’, to Engineers Ireland members at Clyde ...