 |
© Eugene Brennan
|
I
did a 77 km cycle yesterday following a loop taking in the greenway
from Athy to Vicarstown, having previously done the Monasterevin to
Vicarstown section. I hadn't been on the new distributor road in Athy
before, which has a nice cycle path that runs over the old railway
bridge crossing the River Barrow (Bleach Bridge). This was one of the
first concrete bridges in Ireland, the branch line crossing it coming
off the GSWR mainline near Athy station. The branch served the two
collieries south of Athy at Gracefield and Modubeagh and laterally the
Tegral factory. The distributor road is carried over a new single-span
steel composite bridge. According to Roughan & O’Donovan-AECOM who
were appointed to provide technical consultancy services for the Athy
Distributor Road project, the bridge consists of two, 80 m steel plate
girders, made from weathering steel to reduce future maintenance costs.
Weathering steel, also known by the trademark COR-TEN or corten steel is
an alloy made by adding copper and other elements to resist corrosion.
(Similar to the way stainless steel has chrome added). However
weathering steel builds up a patina or weathered coating that resists
further corrosion, unlike "normal" steel. Corten steel is used for the
Fionn MacCumhaill and his hounds sculpture at junction 12 on the M7 at
Ballymany.
 |
| © Eugene Brennan |
