Part of west wall of Slane Bridge collapses.

January 2011

There has been a partial collapse of a section of walling along the western (upstream) side of Slane bridge. The section is located at ground level in the filed on the southern bank of the river (Lynch's Field). This follows an engineering inspection of the bridge some months ago, facilitated by a full closure of the N2, which was carried out by consultants on behalf of Meath County Council. Apparently no report on the bridge arising from this work has been seen by local councillors yet. This event once again highlights the sub-standard road and other infrastructure that the local communiity in Slane has had to endure over decades. This event, coming in advance of the issuing of the engineering report on the bridge, is another serious wake-up call for those in responsibility for safety in this area. Let us hope that this will help us towards our goal of construction of a suitable bypass of the village before injury and further damage occurs.

Cllr Wayne Harding has issued a statement on the recent occurrence:

Press Release

Councillor Wayne Harding has described the partial collapse of the western wall of the N2 bridge at Slane as extremely worrying. "I was alerted this week to the wall collapse by a man out walking his dog and immediately alerted the relevant authorities, councillor Harding said. "There is an extraordinary level of traffic using this bridge and any structural inefficiencies could have devastating consequences", he continued. "A
structural assessment of the bridge was carried out by Meath County Council and the NRA in 2010 and the report has yet to come before the Slane electoral area representatives. The road surface between the square in Slane village and the southern side of the bridge is in extremely bad repair and there are large potholes on the road surface above where the wall collapsed", councillor Harding also said. "There had been monies allocated for the road resurfacing and it had started, but stopped before Christmas because of the deterioration in the weather", the councillor continued. "I believe that this bridge can not keep sustaining the levels of traffic using
it and I will be making strong representations for the Slane Bypass at oral hearings by An Bord Pleanala which are to be held in the coming weeks", Councillor Harding ended by saying.

Ends.

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