Ireland’s longest Bridge Opens on N25
An Taoiseach officially opens N25 New Ross ByPass and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge
An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar joined Rose Katherine Kennedy Townsend at the official opening ceremony of the N25 New Ross Bypass, including Ireland’s longest bridge, by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, Wexford County Council and Kilkenny County Council today (Wednesday the 29th of January 2020).
The 15km Bypass Project includes the 887-metre long structure named the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge, Ireland’s longest bridge, and its two main spans are the longest post-tensioned concrete spans of their type in the world. The bridge crosses the River Barrow between Wexford and Kilkenny and forms a major part of the €230 million investment in the South East region and was delivered within budget.
The N25 New Ross Bypass, combined with the opening of the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy motorway in July 2019, improves dramatically the overall connectivity and accessibility of Wexford, Kilkenny, Waterford and the entire South East Region.
The New Ross bypass scheme will be open to traffic at 12 noon on Thursday, January 30th. It will significantly ease chronic traffic congestion in New Ross town offering time savings of up to 30 minutes. Additionally, it will provide efficiencies on the strategic N25 route from Cork to Rosslare Europort while also supporting the future growth and sustainability of New Ross Town and the South East region. The scheme also links the N25 route with the N30 New Ross to Enniscorthy route
The 35th president of the United States, John F Kennedy’s ancestors hail from Dunganstown, Wexford. The Kennedy Homestead is less than one mile from the new bridge. President Kennedy proudly visited his family town of New Ross in the summer of 1963. The late president’s sister, former US ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith suggested the bridge be named after their mother, in memory of the entire extended family. For further details and to view progresss videos and timelapses of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge construction see: https://www.n25newross.ie/project-updates/
Further information:
The delivery of the N25 New Ross Bypass is the culmination of over 20 years work by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (formerly National Roads Authority), Wexford County Council and Kilkenny County Council as well as technical advisors for the scheme, Mott MacDonald Ireland. The project has been delivered as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) Contract between Transport Infrastructure Ireland and the PPP Company, consisting of BAM PPP, PGGM Infrastructure Coöperatie U.A. and Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.A.
Construction works were undertaken by New Ross Joint Venture, consisting of BAM Civil and Dragados. Arup and Carlos Fernandez Casado acted as designers for New Ross Joint Venture. On average, a workforce of 300 people was employed throughout construction and approximately 2.5 million work hours were completed on site to bring the scheme to fruition.
Taking into account optimal operational and safety considerations, the road will open to public traffic at noon on Thursday 30th January, 2020.
Bypass Stats
14km of new dual carriageway N25 & N30 National Primary Routes.
1km of new single carriageway N30 National Primary Route.
Three new at-grade roundabout junctions creating connections between the new mainline and the existing N25 and N30.
One semi-compact grade-separated junction connecting the mainline with the R733 Road to Hook Peninsula.
Approx. 22 km of new regional, local and access roads.
46 Principal Structures including 3 road overbridges, 8 road underbridges, 1 rail overbridge, 16 farm underpasses and one 887m long three-tower extrados bridge carrying the mainline over the River Barrow.
NEW ROSS
The project will support the future growth and sustainability of New Ross town and the wider region and investment in excess of €50 million is proposed in the coming years, including the following initiatives:
- Improvements to the public realm in New Ross Town as well as access routes into the town.
- The development of the New Ross to Waterford Greenway with a further extension to Hook Head.
- New tourism and recreation initiatives.
The Bypass is directly facilitating these initiatives by removing congestion from New Ross and arterial routes into the town.
Interesting Facts
Overall Project:
- €230 MILLION – total scheme budget (capital costs)
- 46 ROUTE OPTIONS – assessed initially, reduced down to 5 before the preferred route option was identified.
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge:
- 887m LONG – Ireland’s longest bridge
- 230m CENTRAL SPANS – Longest post-tensioned concrete deck spans of their type in the world
- 70,000 TONNES OF CONCRETE – over 3,500 lorry loads
- 7,000 TONNES OF REINFORCING STEEL – similar to the weight of Eiffel Tower
- 500KM OF CABLING WIRE – for deck stay cables, a similar length to the island of Ireland
- 150 TONNES OF FORM TRAVELLER – temporary formwork system suspended from the end of the cantilevered deck to pour sequential concrete deck segments
- 36 METRES ABOVE WATER– deck level above high tide
- 27 METRES ABOVE DECK– the height of the central tower above deck level
- 40 METRE DEEP PILES – of 1.2-metre diameter and anchored 10 metres into the rock for foundations at Pier 4
Other Figures of Interest
- 285,000 TREES & SHRUBS – planted along the scheme
- 125,000 TONNES OF BITUMINOUS MATERIAL – laid for road pavements
- 16 FARM UNDERPASSES – constructed to accommodate the passage of livestock and machinery
- 20 MAMMAL UNDERPASSES – under the road to connect foraging routes
- 1,000 PEOPLE – in excess of this amount of people worked on-site
- 14 NATIONALITIES – contributed to the work on site
- 2.5 MILLION HOURS – approx. worked on site
Archaeological Finds:
32 previously unknown archaeological sites were uncovered and excavated by archaeologists from TVAS (Ireland) Ltd. The record of these finds has now been filed for public viewing at the National Museum of Ireland.
The most significant discoveries include the foundations of a
timber house at Ryleen. It was built by some of the first Stone
Age (Neolithic) farmers who cleared the natural woodlands, 9th planted crops and raised their livestock in this area almost 6000
years ago. Cremation burials found in Berkeley, Camlin and
Stokestown reveal aspects of our Bronze Age forebears’ belief 10th systems 3 – 4,000 years ago. At Landscape the remains of a 700-year-old medieval farmstead were uncovered.
