COMHAIRLE CHONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, May 08, 2006

QUESTION No. 11

QUESTION: Cllr. Fintan McCarthy

To ask the Manager to review the safety of all bridges that traverse roads within the county, with a view to assessing the need for the erection of decorative protective fencing to prevent the danger of objects falling on passing traffic?

REPLY

1. The National Roads Authority (NRA) have, currently, no programme of retrofitting of 'cages' on structures which traverse motorways or dual carriageways.

 

2. To prevent objects from falling onto carriageways below, the NRA Bridge Management Unit will ensure that all parapets on structures will be fitted with mesh infill. This was done at Balrothery Interchange earlier this year. 

 

3. Where there are recorded cases of anti social behavior on overbridges with incidents of missiles thrown onto passing vehicles this will immediately be investigated by the NRA Bridge Management Unit with appropriate measures taken. This may involve retrofitting 'cages' on the bridges. An incident of this nature was reported at Ballymount Interchange in 2005. The likelihood of this re-occurring at this structure will be removed once the M50 widening contract is complete as pedestrians will be removed from the interchange onto dedicated pedestrian footbridges which will be fully encapsulated. There will be similar dedicated footbridges also at the N4 and N7 interchanges.