Mulroy Bay Bridge

GoldenGreen

quote=Harps;60306277]Anyone care to put a pic up of the finished bridge? Im never up in that part of the county & being an engineer I'd be interested to see the finished project[/quote]
　
　
Here is a pic from the Fanad side looking over to Carrigart. When driving over it is a big incline.
　
　
　
　

　
　
　
　
　
　
But gee the road on the Fanad side would really need work, most parts two cars can't pass.
　
　
Went over it and drove on the Fanad side for about 5 kms, sorry I did, it was busy with people checking out the bridge, turned and ended up getting caught behind a farmer herding his cows for about 1.5 kms.
　
　
Is see in the local paper that Cowen is quoted as saying he was happy to be the minister to provide funding for it when he was minister for Fin. Thought It was Europe that provided the funding, but I guess with elections coming up they will all claim they did this and that.
　
　
Still an impressive bridge and I hope is does get good use. Also any part of Donegal would welcome more tourists. Hope it is marketed correctly showing tourists they can go from the Antrim coast right across the top of Ireland via the bridge and two ferries.

Harps

Cheers for that..bigger than I thought it'd be. Seems a bit pointless if theyre not upgrading the approach roads though

Similar design to the Foyle Bridge in Derry

andyc09lad

the bridge is a great job, regardless what some people think. harry and neil t blaney both fought for it over 20 or 30 years. so fair play to the dcc to name it after harry blaney, a legend to donegal and the road will be upgraded soon it wasnt in the original contract

salonfire

Story in the Letterkenny Post today - less than 40 cars/hours using the bridge

I'm sure its convenient to the locals alright but no way is €17 million a good investment in this case.

It really does characterize Ireland - a massive bridge, not out of place in a city like Dublin or London is built in a place where people get stuck behind cattle in the local roads - its almost laughable if it wasn't so serious

Why wasn't the money spent on improving the entire road network down there in the two peninsulas - would that not have been beneficial to a lot more people??

BTW there is no guarantee that the ferries will be running this summer either as it appears the Magilligan Point - Greencastle service is making a loss. http://www.inishowennews.com/07MagilliganPoint.htm

Senna

salonfire wrote: »

Why wasn't the money spent on improving the entire road network down there in the two peninsulas - would that not have been beneficial to a lot more people??

I'd love to know how much funding the gov put in and how much the EU put in. If the EU paid for all/most then great, we would not have got the funding for anything else, so better it spent here than Spain, Italy, Poland etc

andyc09lad

exatly but i would say the irish government put a lot of money into it, but its good to see the money being spent in donegal than in another county.

salonfire

Senna wrote: »

I'd love to know how much funding the gov put in and how much the EU put in. If the EU paid for all/most then great, we would not have got the funding for anything else, so better it spent here than Spain, Italy, Poland etc

Are there any "This Project is partly financed by the EU" or whatever type signs erected?

letterkennytown

There seems to be alot of sour grapes around Donegal about this bridge.This project is a credit to the Blaney family as was the Knockalla coast road which when it happened,and it had all the same comments going around.Where in Ireland or europe for that matter would you see scenery like that all brought about by the vision of this great family.As long as the Blaneys are around we will always see these type of projects coming to our county.I dont see anybody else delivering for us in Donegal.

PS Regional college in Letterkenny wouldn't be there to-day only for these great gaels of Donegal

muffler

letterkennytown wrote: »

There seems to be alot of sour grapes around Donegal about this bridge.This project is a credit to the Blaney family as was the Knockalla coast road which when it happened,and it had all the same comments going around.Where in Ireland or europe for that matter would you see scenery like that all brought about by the vision of this great family.As long as the Blaneys are around we will always see these type of projects coming to our county.I dont see anybody else delivering for us in Donegal.

PS Regional college in Letterkenny wouldn't be there to-day only for these great gaels of Donegal

Spoken like a true Blaneyite :rolleyes:

Welcome to the forum

mrmac

letterkennytown wrote: »

PS Regional college in Letterkenny wouldn't be there to-day only for these great gaels of Donegal

Sweet gawd a'mighty, I seez da light! :pac:

I fully support the building of this bridge, did so way back in an earlier post, but you can't seriously believe that the Blaneys did it all on their own? I do agree, they have done some great work by attracting investment into Fanad, but isn't that the point of having them? Isn't that their job? I know that folks can become very loyal to the their local politicians, or parties, but I'd like to think we've more than one representative up in the big smoke?

letterkennytown

I would also like to think we also have more representation in the big smoke but just take a look at the attendance record of our 3 sitting td's in the north east.Thats where you will get your answer.Niall Blaney defnitely not found wanting here.

This bridge is the sheer hard work of Harry Blaney hence the naming of the bridge.

muffler

letterkennytown wrote: »

This bridge is the sheer hard work of Harry Blaney hence the naming of the bridge.

Didnt know he was in the contracting business

mrmac

muffler wrote: »

Didnt know he was in the contracting business

<snip>

Senna

Anyone hear that the big sign at the bridge was vandalised before el presidente Cowan arrived and it had to be cleaning in an awful hurry, i think the changed the name to "bridge to nowhere" and some other rude comment.:eek:

andyc09lad

in fairness my dad bes working in fanad 2 to 3 times a week and he thinks the bridge isgreat saves him a lot of time of his journey

homer simpson

Went down a run last weekend, have to say its while steep, what use will it be when it gets battered with freezing winds and gets a coating of ice or snow it will be impassable, its far too steep, only time i've been to a new bridge and when you get to the top you see a steep hill sign (the yellow one with a car on as triangle thing) and you'd better take heed to the narrow road sign at the other side!!! just can't help but feel let down when im grinding through traffic to go through lettekenny each morning, when there is a shiny new bridge in fanad being rarely used, the less than 40 cars per hour is with all the people going to see it god knows what the average will be like in mid november say!!!

mayoimafriad

i must admit i dont know much about his area geographically, but how on earth did this bridge ever get the go ahead???? i google mapped this area, and there isn't even a village, dont mind a town on the peninsula side! the population has to be very low! surely there are areas all around the country which need a bridge built way more than this bridge?

im sure every donegal person has to agree that there are projests in the county that need the go ahead before this bridge!!!

N14 letterkenny/lifford road springs to mind! this road replaced could prevent deaths and many serious accidents! what deaths will this bridge reduce???

Harps

The road around Muff & Buncrana seems to cause a few deaths every single year..the Letterkenny - Lifford road as you say is a joke, Letterkenny needs at least one more bridge over the Swilly & another main road into the town other than Port Road. Theres plenty more I could list if I could be bothered to think

I have no problem with the building of the bridge but its the fact that the other areas around the county are ignored while something like this in the middle of nowhere gets €17m spent on it.

muffler

mayoimafriad wrote: »

i must admit i dont know much about his area geographically, but how on earth did this bridge ever get the go ahead????

What price a vote?

mayoimafriad

its a nice lookin bridge i'll say that! donegal has some fine bridges now between mulroy and the 1 on the ballyshannon bypass! i read only 40 cars an hour are using the bridge, its not that i think that is awful low (to be fair the bridge only opened & isn't even on maps yet) maybe im wrong but would an awful lot of that traffic not just be people checking out the bridge??!

Kintarō Hattori

I'm not from Donegal, just have cousins here so I can't comment on what the area needs. I did take a spin over the bridge yesterday with the cousin and we're both flabbergasted that it cost €17 million to construct. Where did the money go? It looks like a fairly simple concrete construction.

smashey

I drove over it yesterday as well and came from the Fanad side. One thing I did notice was that as I drove from Kerrykeel out through Tamney, Rosnakill and towards Ballyheerin, there wasn't a single sign mentioning the fact that there is now a bridge linking Fanad to Carrigart.

Mr Kite

I have also found a lack of signs on the Fanad side of the bridge and if it stays like this for the summer there will be fun and games for the tourists driving around boreens endlessly bumping into each other.
Spoke with a Lady in Carrigart about same, and she said the council have no money to put up any signs on the Fanad side.

Dumb

A concrete bridge wasn't what they wanted it was a rope bridge. It's only in Fanad for Christ's sake.

puffdragon

Yeah! Yeah! calm down people ! The damn things built now so ther`s not a feckin lot we can do. I was workin there recently and remarked it would be the Ideal place to jump off if things get tight,I never had any bother passing other traffic on fanad roads but then I suppose I was born and raised in Donegal and our cars are smaller than the rest of the country`s,(least since I`ve torn the wing mirrors off mine cause they`l not cut the f-ckin hedges) Any road that helps the local population in Fanad,Carrigart is ok with me ,good decent folks and always got a great reception any time I visited. None of the politicians are really up to scratch at the moment ,abuse is rampant ,if this is an example of politicians abusing the system then I say "long may they run"

mrmac

I was down this way today (graveyard mass in Massmount), and headed back via the new bridge. I saw plenty of new signs for the "Blaney Bridge" on the Fanad side. The roads are a bit narrow, but they have improved a lot over the last 20 years!

Coming from Ballyheerin, it probably cut +15mins of the journey to Letterkenny. I think the biggest benefit, for the people in Fanad, is the proximity to Carrigart, as this will be the closest Doctor, Dentist, etc; which is now a lot closer that Kerrykeel.

puffdragon

Yeah ther`s some down there who will find great benifits from the bridge and more power to them .Hope you enjoyed the trip It`s beautifull down there on a good day, We`ll just have to keep pushing for other improvements to the road infastructure in our wee county maybee we`ll get a decent road to Dublin some time (and I must fix my wing mirrors )

lucernarian

Sorry for bumping this thread, but it's the only thread on boards that seems to deal with this bridge!

Does anyone have any of the plans or maps that would have been produced in conjunction with the plans for this bridge? E.g. Meath County Council have a preffered route for the N2 Slane Bypass here: http://www.meath.ie/LocalAuthorities/Roads/MajorRoadsProjects/N2SlaneBypass/SlaneBypassPublications/File,39197,en.pdf

I checked Donegal County Council's website but I found no maps of any kind.

I'll probably give them a call but if anyone can help me with the relevant links, I'd be very grateful:)

Btw, my 2 cent on it is; I'm glad to see the bridge built, I know the area well and have visited it several times over my life. It's quite expensive for the money alright but I don't think it was a complete white elephant.