Virginia bridge project nears completion

Weather will determine the completion date for the remedial work on Virginia bridge, and the council continues to lobby for a bypass of the town, an engineer has told the Celt.
Remedial works at Virginia bridge commenced in spring and was due to finish in late October, but construction workers remain on site today as the major project edges towards completion.
“All of the structural elements are done,” reports Brendan Jennings, the council’s senior engineer for roads. He continues to list the dwindling to-do list for the contractors John Craddock Ltd: “They have to waterproof the deck, bring concrete and macadam surfaces up, they have water mains to put into it, they will have to bring ducting for services across it, and then they have to put in the kerbing and footpath on both sides and the macadam surface and road markings.”
While the contractors have pencilled in a completion date of Monday, December 19, achieving that aim is heavily weather dependent. The council has committed to maintaining two way traffic from 8am-8pm in the run up to Christmas, however, the final stage of the work is on road level and demands a one-way traffic system and they have committed to only do this work from 8pm-8am. Therefore milder nights are required. “If it’s too cold for surfacing works, or works of that nature, we won’t do it all and will have to wait until after Christmas...
“Our key focus - and thankfully the contractor has come on board with us - is that we don’t impact in any way on business and traffic flow, particularly at Christmas. We want to make Virginia attractive to come into. We’re working with them continuously and are keeping them up to date as best we can.”
Mr Jennings therefore accepts that the work “will run into January if it stays cold”.
Virginia Bridge was one of nine bridges in County Cavan, along the N3 and N87, identified by the Council and the NRA - now TII - as requiring remedial work. Of those bridges, Swanlinbar, Billis - which is near completion - and the biggest project, Virginia, remain outstanding.
Amongst the chief objectives in undertaking the Virginia project was to widen the very narrow footpaths. “If you met somebody they would have to step out onto the road, which is far from ideal,” recalls Mr Jennings.
The new lay-out provides for greatly widened footpaths on both sides and will tie in with the forthcoming pedestrian crossing and traffic lights at the Bailieborough Road junction.

'Necessary evil’
Rita Martin, treasurer with Virginia Development Association (VDA) agrees that the footpaths were unsuitable and describes the ongoing bridge works as “a necessary evil”.
“It was totally unsuitable, in fact it was dangerous, and it is probably a miracle that there hasn’t been an accident over the years,” reflects Ms Martin. “We are happy with improvements, the only thing was that it did affect [businesses]. People stopped coming to the town because they would get stuck in traffic. In fairness to Cavan County Council we did have meetings with them, told them the problems, and also methods to solve them - people got a chance to have their say and we were happy there was consultation when problems arose.”
Virginia Bridge was previously widened in the 1980s and Mr Jennings suspects that the concrete slabs used then were intended as a temporary measure. Inspections revealed “significant problems”.
Although there was no threat of collapse, Mr Jennings explains “there were clear signs of deterioration... it was only going to get worse.”
In carrying out the work, the council also used the opportunity to restore the bridge to its former aesthetic glory; the 1980s project covered over beautiful old stonework on one side, and even concealed one of the archways.
“The stones have been taken down, they’ve been counted and recorded and put back up where they were,” explained Mr Jennings, adding, “the old five arch bridge will be brought back to life, but in a wider setting.”

Bailieborough Junction
Another key component of the current Virginia project is the realignment of Bailieborough Road junction. Much of that work had been completed, but the traffic lights were removed to meet the wishes of the VDA and businesses for the two-way passage of traffic through the town.
“Once they are finished the bridge, we can go back and put the traffic lights in, and get the pedestrian crossings back in and everything will work in tandem,” said Mr Jennings.
The new lay-out will include a filter light making it much easier for motorists turning right from the Bailieborough Road onto the N3. “They are very high-tech traffic lights in that they are going to be monitoring the flows, so if there’s nobody on the Bailieborough Road waiting to come out, it’s not going to turn red on the N3,” he explained.

Glitches
Mr Jennings acknowledges that there have been some glitches in undertaking the work, such as a burst water mains in recent weeks. The workmen also encountered issues “with the delivery of the arches” which delayed progress. “They ran into problems with water levels in the river,” said Mr Jennings, “ground conditions there set them back.”
He accepts they had “issues” with traffic “at the start of the project” but points to the extensive consultations they undertook to try to meet the, at times, conflicting interests of VDA, residents and commuters.
However, Mr Jennings is content with the progress of the work, and estimates that two-way traffic has been maintained “for about 90% of the project”.
He opines that “within Virginia itself there’s been some negative press” on the work, and notes that some businesses have blamed the ongoing congestion issues on the project. “When the bridge is built and finished and opened, there will still be traffic problems in Virginia. Traffic volumes are increasing on a weekly basis at this stage, and all you have to do is sit out on the street at 6am and you’ll see droves of traffic going to Dublin, and they have to come home and they are going to get stuck at Virginia.”

Bypass
Virginia’s long-term traffic issues were raised by Deputy Brendan Smith recently in the Dáil, when he called on the government to urgently provide funding to progress the design and planning of a bypass for the town.
The Celt asked Mr Jennings if the council executive had a view on the matter. “It’s a project we have been driving and trying to get,” he replied.
Mr Jennings explained that the bypass project was “on the cards back in 2003” when planning was secured. It was “suspended” at that time with the Edenburt to Cavan scheme taking precedence, but it too was suspended in 2011 due to the crash.
“We’re trying to lose this suspension term - get the Virginia bypass back on the table again, and we’re driving that hard ourselves with the TII, and politically Brendan Smith and others are doing the same.
“If that is to be successful, we have got to get back to the planning and design element of that and it would take a number of years to come to fruition - it’s a substantial project,” said the engineer.
Mr Jennings further explained that given the location of Lough Ramor, “a major constraint”, any bypass would likely have to take a northern route.
“All route options will be looked at, but I suppose from a practical approach there’s very little options to the south.”
Rita Martin, treasurer of the Virginia District Association accepts that the volume of traffic is increasing. “There hasn’t really been a public consultation in Virginia in the last seven or eight years, on whether the bypass would be a good idea or not. So we would like to be consulted - that would be the first thing anyway,” she remarked.
Ms Martin acknowledged that there is some apprehension at the prospect. “There’s pluses and minuses, but we don’t want a dead town. There are some towns in the west of Ireland where they bypassed them and you could just put the shutters up on them, so we don’t want that.”
The Celt directs Ms Martin to the closer example of Kells, which she agrees, seems to be “doing okay”. However, she points out that the Meath town differs from Virginia in that it has successful business parks on the outskirts of the town. “Kells has been well serviced with industry - we have got nothing in Virginia for the past 40 years probably.”

Off street parking
Ms Martin believes that off street parking would greatly improve traffic management in the town. Currently there is €100,000 public funding available and the VDA have earmarked three potential sites under discussion.
“We have been beating this drum for at least 10 years, looking for proper off-street parking and it hasn’t materialised... I do think that would help alleviate some of the traffic problems if we had proper off street parking,” she said.