This article is from page 28 of the 2007-07-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 28 JPG
RESTORING the bridge in Killaloe to it’s former glory will cost in the region of €100,000 Clare County Council officials have revealed.
A meeting last week of council offi- cials and elected members from both the Killaloe and Ballina sides of the river was being updated on progress with plans to repair the structure.
Council engineer, Sean Lenihan, told the meeting that the project is now at the stage where the council 1s seeking quotes from conservation ar- chitects for the job.
He told the meeting that the work
will be “slow and expensive” but of necessity as the bridge is listed as a national monument.
“The scope of this has increased considerably on what was first envis- aged,” he said. “Initially, we thought it was just a matter of cleaning off vegetation but there are some spots where the vegetation has become al- most part of the structure and it’s not just a matter of pulling it out. There’s a lot of restorative work and repoint- ing needed.”
The council’s conservation offic- ers became involved in assessing the project and they advised senior staff that conservation architects would be
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The question of where the money will come from for the work is still being discussed.
‘‘T have contacted the Heritage Coun- cil and they have a special fund which I hope might be available to us and we have inspectors from the department coming down on August 6. We’ll be making representations to him to see if we can get any department funding. After that, it will be between the two councils to pay for it,” said Sean.
Meanwhile, the meeting was told that the brief has now been finalised for the new river crossing at Killaloe.
Senior Officer, John Sheehy said
that the finished brief is about to be issued to those consultants who ex- pressed an interest.
“The consultants then have six to eight weeks to come back to us and we would expect appointments to be made after that,” he said.
The Clare council officer added that the new crossing “is a big project and it will take time. There will be issues on the links to the existing roads and after the consultants have been ap- pointed, there will be at least a year’s work for them to do. Anyone who is expecting a bridge to be there within a year has to realise that won’t hap- pen.”