DUBLIN & MEATH RAILWAY BRIDGE REPLACEMENT

CIE has applied to An Bord Pleanála for a Railway Order authorizing them to reopen the first 7.5 km of the double-track Dublin and Meath Railway line from Clonsilla to Pace, north of Dunboyne. This will require the replacement of the 70° skew bridge over the Royal Canal some 900 metres west of Callaghan Bridge. Passenger services on this line to Navan ended in January 1947 but it remained open for goods traffic until April 1963. The tracks were lifted shortly after the line’s closure but the bridge remained intact until the late 1970s, when the span over the canal was removed and scrapped. The substantial masonry abutments and wing walls of the bridge remain in place on either side of the canal.

The design of a new bridge has been completed in consultation with a conservation architect and with Waterways Ireland. It will consist of a lattice type tress bearing on new piled abutments placed behind the existing stone abutments. All retained stonework is to be cleaned and the towpath under the bridge will be retained. Clearance under the bridge will exceed four metres over water level. Work to reinstate the junction with the main (MGWR) line to Sligo is already underway beyond Clonsilla and work on relaying the Dunboyne line itself is due to begin, with completion in 2010.

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