Mary McAleese Boyne Valley Bridge

The Mary McAleese Bridge (a.k.a. the Boyne Valley Bridge) was built in 2003 and carries the M1 over the River Boyne between the counties of Meath and Louth, some 3 km west of Drogheda.

The bridge was named in honour of Mary McAleese, the former President of Ireland, at a ceremony held on 8 June 2013, which also marked the tenth anniversary of the opening of the bridge on 9 June 2003.

The largest recent bridge project in the Republic at the time of its construction, it consists of an asymmetrical cable-stayed high-level bridge with an overall length of 370 metres and spans of 42.5, 170, 40, 45, 30, and 25 metres. The deck is 35 metres wide and carries four running-lanes. It comprises two longitudinal steel-plate girders with transverse girders at 3.333 metres centres supporting an in situ reinforced concrete slab. The steel composite deck (which will remain unpainted) is clad in a GRP (glass reinforced polymer) enclosure. The deck is supported from a 95-metre high reinforced in-situ concrete pylon by 14 pairs of stay cables. Each stay cable consists of between 32 and 68 15.7-mm diameter 7-wire strands. A significant part of the bridge design is the architectural lighting scheme which illuminates the structure at night.

Links

BBC

• Boyne bridge re-named after former Irish President Mary McAleese (8 June 2013)

Techical details

• RMD Kwikform
• Dorman Long Technology
• ROD Consulting Engineers