Irish rail line collapses in Malahide’s broadmeadows estuary
A railway viaduct very near my home collapsed into the broadmeadows estuary. We’re very fortunate that the train which crossed only seconds before the collapse made it across safely. The underlying piers the viaduct is built upon dates back to the mid 19th century. Yesterdays tides were approximately 15 feet high, which is stronger than usual. High tide was at about 1 in the afternoon and lowest tide was shortly after the collapse. These photos show how it appeared before, in October 2008 and just after the incident on 21 August 2009. I wonder if there is a better way of monitoring the erosion under such structures. Underwater cameras? Laser interferometry?
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- October 2008
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- 21 Aug 2009
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- 22 August 2009
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- 22 Aug 2009
Posted: August 22nd, 2009 under news.
Tags: rail, repair, technology, transportation
Comments
Comment from admin
Time August 25, 2009 at 9:57 am
I found this on the myc website:
The ‘Arches’ or Viaduct
In the light of the recent spectacular collapse readers may be interested in learning something of the history of this iconic structure.
The wide and deep cutting to the south of Malahide station provided much of the stone required to build the embankment northwards across the estuary to Donabate in the early 1840s. The viaduct, known locally as ‘The Arches’, was originally built in 1844 and, together with the embankment, greatly changed the ecology of the estuary. The original was a remarkable structure built entirely of wood, comprising eleven spans of 50 feet length. In 1860 a new iron bridge was built but they kept trains running during construction. The engineer in charge had a special castellated stone office built for his use and this can be seen today at the northern end. 90,000 tons of stone were discharged along the line of the bridge to overcome the scour produced by tidal currents. 8,000 tons had to be replaced after severe storms in 1922 and 1965. The viaduct was again replaced in 1966/67 with a wholly pre-cast scheme involving 2,100 tons of concrete units and including 43 miles of pre-stressing strand wire. This was believed to be the largest pre-cast superstructure in Ireland at the time. The work was carried out on Sundays at a cost of £83,000 but this time there was disruption to services with passengers being bussed from Malahide. Until Friday 21 August the viaduct had 12 spans, not all of equal length, and it is 577 feet in length.
Comment from Ron Kennedy
Time August 25, 2009 at 9:16 am
I seem to recall a previous collapse years ago of Malahide viaduct!!
Can you confirm or is my memory playing tricks?