Salmon Weir gets new bridge

Anyone taking bets how long before a car gets stuck on the bridge?

Got a good look at it from the Newtonsmith side for the first time yesterday, and my first thought was that cars 100% will drive onto it - the design practically invites it.

No, that's a roundabout.

Opened today

TG4 report, last few seconds show how bad the location is imho, compared to desire line of travel, Town<->Uni.

You're right, good cop. Of course the design can not be blamed. It's actually a really cool & clever design characteristic. The bridge creates enough shade for a downward observation point that gives the observer an unobtrusive reverse periscope perspective with no reflective glare or sunlight to view spawning salmon & other underwater activity.

Would love that to be a requisite for all bridges that cover important rivers in Ireland. Someone was thinking outside the box here, the bridge is obviously much more than a bridge, it's a feature & somewhere to pause, relax & discover.

Again, the Corrib is an amazing river, it's vibrancy, it's rush & energy really reflects the city of Galway as it floods out to the bay. Looking forward to visiting again.

After saying earlier in this thread that I didn't expect to ever cycle over it, I ended up doing just that on Saturday. I was leaving St. Pat's school and needed to get to Mill Street, so I decided to turn left and go up by Bowling Alley, across the bridge, and back down Nun's Island. It trebled the length of that journey, so I wouldn't do it again, but it was interesting to check it out. Some observations:

1) the bridge was busy but not too full, and having some people walking and others on bikes didn't seem to create any issues. I took it very slowly and those walking seemed to take on board that there were people on bikes; they weren't actively dodging or anything like that but maybe just continuing to walk straight until a bike had gone past, and only then moving over to the parapet to admire the view, for example.

2) the benches were getting good use and there were plenty people taking selfies.

3) coming from the Newtownsmith side there was no issue getting from the road up to the bridge level without hitting a curb due to the wide raised table. On the other side there's a substantial drop from the kerb to the road for most of the length of the bollards. So, if you're going like I was, across the bridge east to west and the turning left towards Nun's Island, you either have to crash down off the kerb or head right instead and join all those on foot at the pedestrian crossing to come down there. I was able to get my bike down off the kerb without a problem but I wouldn't see my father on his electric bike doing that, for example. It seems unnecessary to funnel bikes into a tight mix with people walking at that point when there is so much space available.

is there a project to remove the eel traps and some TLC for the SWB?

No one wants to take ownership of them, that’s the problem.

It’s stuck in the mire between City Council, Inland Fisheries, Lough Corrib Navigation and other agencies, so I can’t see them being removed any time soon unfortunately

Two separate structures, I believe. The eel traps are right up against the Salmon Weir Bridge but the salmon traps are downstream of the new pedestrian bridge, level with the southern edge of the Cathedral carpark. The former looks to be made solely from metal and constructed relatively recently, while the latter has multiple stone buttresses in the river and looks much older. You would hope that would mean the eel traps don't have any serious heritage hurdles to clear.

That will continue while the obvious zebra crossing on the west end of the old bridge is still missing. It's a pain to cross over there to access the new bridge.

It should get much easier when they implement the bus gate.

Faster moving traffic will make it easier to cross the road?

As a frequent pedestrian, that doesn't match my experience.

Fast-moving roads are a lot more dangerous, unless they are very low volume.

Less frequent means not often occurring or low volume. @rustyfrog said Faster moving less frequent vehicles will be easier than a continual stream of slow moving vehicles and as an every day urban & city pedestrian I'd agree.

Alphabet Inc has given it a name already

Openstreetmap says something else

like I am genuinelky wondering if it is a thing that everybody living in Galway notices after a while or if ..... oh yeah, if it looks that way from here one expects the reality to follow.

the fact that it is a facade. Is that like universally known already, is it in guide books and things.

Particularly approaching it at the level and direction that one is now doing so is it something everybody has already noticed or are there a load of people assuming that the facade continues into a real building, Actually, does it continue or is there a gap between that and the building on the other side? Not sure if what's now adhjacent to it is freestanding from it.

Is it a listed wall and if so did it get listed when it was separated from the original building and how did it survive.

I think I had been walking by it for a while a couple of decades ago when I realised that there was no continuation from gable to roof inside. & I'm not sure if that is as visible or at all visible from the new bridge's perspective.

what's on the far side of this.

Just realising that i think both of those doors function

It's been there as a facade for decades and I wondered if it was well known as such. Could have been something everybody in town was already aware of.

I found it odd that it was preserved as a wall and not what had been inside the wall I think elsewhere things got gutted by bombing during the war etc but unlikely that would be here.

Also may have noticed from seeing in the gates from Francis st that the corresponding building didn't match it's exterior. Now wondering if what was built does go up to include that wall as a side or if it is a bit away from it.

Thought for a moment that glass was stained glass but not seeing it.

Just does still seem odd that there is a wall preserved without its interior. So assume there must be a reason they chose to.