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08 Jan 2010
A "flying" bridge in Holland. The little boy in me (what?!) thinks it's totally cool. Transformers!
(Thanks Tag. Via Frozenly)
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world
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16 Dec 2009
Motorists have been quick to complain about the odd traffic arrangements at the Beckett Bridge (no left turns, forcing traffic into the city centre) and now the Dublin Cycling Campaign has an damning (and exhaustive!) analysis of the provisions made for cyclists.
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dublin
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12 Dec 2009
Coming back from our walk this evening, the Samuel Beckett Bridge was swarming with photographers! There must have been at least thirty of them all over it with their tripods, capturing it from every angle. I suspect it was some kind of photography class, though there were plenty of other tourists and sightseers there with their cameras too.
Nice to see it being so appreciated, but I did notice the cute little Liffey Ferry bobbing rather forlornly at it's mooring. I suppose now that the bridge is open right where the ferry plied it's sweet trade, it's now defunct. Awwww.... Penny and I used to like to take it occasionally.
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infrastructure
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dublin
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11 Dec 2009
The Samuel Beckett Bridge
officially opened at last today, and Penny and I went along to the ribbon
cutting ceremony. Penny was determined to be the first dog on to the bridge,
and she was. She is now referring to herself as The First Dog. She was also the
first to claim it as her own by taking a piss on it.
There was a fair crowd,
though smaller than I expected, mostly very well dressed for the auspicious
occasion. Lots of City Council types, members of the Beckett family - a number
of handsome teenage boys in their Sunday best suits - and the usual bridge and
infrastructure nerds. One of the first people we saw when we arrived was Seamus
Heaney, who I assumed was going to speak, but he didn't. Though he was
acknowledged by the other speakers - the City Manager, the Lady Mayor, and
Miguel Calatrava, son of the bridge's designer Santiago Calatrava. Apparently
Beckett and Heaney share a birthday, and of course they're both Nobel laureates
for literature.
The bridge was 'open' when
we arrived, and just before the speeches they turned on the mechanism and it
swung around and out across the river and snugly into place. Impressively
snugly. It was a slick, efficient operation, only taking about two and a half minutes.
As per, the speeches went
on a little longer than you'd like, but just as I was about to heckle the Lady
Mayor, she cut the ribbon and we were allowed on to the bridge.
There was a nice
atmosphere, with a tug-boat spraying jets of water, and the bridge looked great
in the dying late afternoon light.
Penny wasted no time in
marking the bridge as hers, and she got lots of attention as the first dog
across. At one point another woman arrived with her dog and she was ragin' that
Penny had got there first. Ha! No flies on Penny!
Here's Penny inspecting the Lady
Mayor's car.
And here's Seamus Heaney and the Lady Mayor ignoring us.
That's the National Convention Centre in the background. Penny doesn't really like it.
The finish and details are nice.
The control room for the swing mechanism.
No we did not sneak in to the control room! How could you even suggest such a thing? We would never be so bold! How very dare you?!
Penny inspects the plaque.
And here's a shot video I took, including at the end when my friend Will remarks jokingly that it's amazing that the bridge works considering it's in Dublin, and an ould fella beside us turns around and says, "I resemble that remark!"
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dublin
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10 Dec 2009
I think it's opening at 3pm to pedestrians/sightseers, and to traffic tomorrow. Penny is quite excited to finally be able to cross it. We were down there earlier and all the construction debris has been removed and it looks ready to go. We tried to sweet talk or way on to it, but the 'jobsworth' was having none of us, despite my lash batting.
(First photo, by photog Shane Murphy, knicked off the internet)
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dublin
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06 Dec 2009
Penny and I decided to walk off our hangovers from the party last night by talking a stroll along the length of the new LUAS Red Line extension from Connelly Station to the Point Depot. If you haven't been down that part of the city for a few years, the changes will astound you. What was once a semi-derelict, industrial part of the city is now gleaming and modern, and unlike some of the other 'new' parts of the city, it seems to be "embedding" well. Among all the office space there are plenty of apartments, supermarkets, bars, restaurants, and the new National College of Ireland campus. Although it was a dark, cold Sunday, there was plenty of life on the streets. We even saw, for the first time, a regular guy using a Segway for regular transport, i.e. not someone using it as part of his job, or as an advertising gimmick. I guess they almost make sense there, with the wide modern paving.
The new LUAS extension opens next Tuesday, and they're running the trams as they test the line.
On our way back we walked along the Liffey north quays to look at the Beckett Bridge at night. It finally opens this week too. To "sightseers" on Thursday, and to traffic on Friday.
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27 Nov 2009
The extension to the LUAS Red Line, from Connolly Station to The Point Depot will open on Dec 8th. The extension travels over the gorgeous new bridge at Spencer Dock, just behind the National Convention Centre (the building with the tilted glass cylinder on the quays)
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dublin
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21 Nov 2009
Apparently the Samuel Beckett Bridge will open on Dec 10th to "sightseers" and open to traffic the following day. Here's some pics Penny and I took on our walk today.
And in somewhat related news (at least they're related by our walk) the new Libeskind designed Grand Canal Dock Theatre is due to open on March 16th next year. Apparently the Bolshoi Ballet are the first in.
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dublin
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architecture
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infrastructure
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24 Aug 2009
The curvy sexy new pedestrian and LUAS bridge over the Royal Canal at Spencer Dock, that I've posted about before, is one of nine Irish projects that have been shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival Awards.
Here are some crappy pics of it. It was impossible to get a good vantage point because it's still surrounded by construction.
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23 Aug 2009
(thanks Blánaid)
And the collapse is causing a massive headache for Iarnrod Eireann. Not only the cost of the repair, the lengthy time-frame involved, and the 20,000 passengers a day that will now need to bussed, but also because of all the carriages that are now 'trapped' on the far side of the breach.
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