Clare County Council has confirmed that its consultants have completed their investigations at Latoon Creek Bridge, which has been the subject of a weight restriction since late 2015.
The Local Authority said it anticipates that repair work to the bridge, which is located between Newmarket-on-Fergus and Clarecastle on the old Ennis/Limerick road, will begin by late August and will be completed during November.
The cost of initial assessments followed by more detailed investigations and analysis of the bridge structure has been €140,000 to date. Clare County Council anticipates that the total cost when remediation works have been completed will approximately range between €600,000 and €700,000. Replacing the bridge would have set back the Council more than €2.5m.
Tom Tiernan, Senior Engineer, Clare County Council explained, “Due to the complex nature of the construction of the bridge, specialist contractors with experience in investigation of similar structures conducted additional structural investigations, load assessments and sensitivity analysis. The result of their investigations, recently completed, is that the 3.5-tonne weight restriction can now be eased to 18 tonnes. This amended restriction, however, must remain in place until the repairs are carried out.”
“The new restriction will be less onerous than that which has existed up to now,” he added. “From today vehicles of up to 18 tonnes will be free to use the bridge but those above 18 tonnes such as articulated vehicles, other vehicles facilitated by more that 2 axles, some buses and coaches must not at any time do so because of the associated structural and safety risks.”
He said, “The consultants will procure a specialist contractor to carry out the repairs once the design is complete. Design and procurement is expected to be complete by the end of August. The repair work is expected to take 3 months and is hoped to be complete by the end of November 2016, provided there is no delay arising from procuring a contractor.”
“The repair of this bridge will bring about the lifting of the weight restriction. In the meantime signage is in place to divert relevant traffic away from the bridge,” Mr Tiernan concluded.