Bridges of Offaly County: an Industrial Heritage Review
BRIDGES OF OFFALY COUNTY: AN INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE REVIEW Fred Hamond for Offaly County Council November 2005 Cover Approach to Derrygarran Bridge over Figile River, Coolygagan Td. CONTENTS PREFACE SUMMARY 1. METHODOLOGY 1 1.1 Project brief 1 1.2 Definition of terms 1 1.3 Bridge identification and selection 1 1.4 Numbering 2 1.5 Paper survey 3 1.6 Field survey 3 1.7 Computer database 4 1.8 Sample representation 4 2. BRIDGE TECHNOLOGY 5 2.1 Bridge types 5 2.2 Span forms 7 2.3 Arch bridges 8 2.4 Beam bridges 11 2.5 Suspension bridges 18 2.6 Pipe bridges 19 3. BRIDGE BUILDERS 20 3.1 Grand Jury bridges 20 3.2 Canal bridges 22 3.3 Government bridges 26 3.4 Railway bridges 28 3.5 Private bridges 31 3.6 Offaly CC bridges 32 3.7 National Roads Authority bridges 33 3.8 Office of Public Works bridges 33 3.9 Bord na Mona bridges 35 3.10 Iarnród Éireann bridges 37 4. BRIDGES OF HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE 38 4.1 Evaluation criteria 38 4.2 Rating 39 4.3 Statutory protection 40 4.4 Recommendations for statutory protection 41 5. ISSUES 43 5.1 Bridge upgrading 43 5.2 Repairs and maintenance 46 5.3 Attachments to bridges 48 5.4 The reuse of defunct bridges 48 5.5 Bridge ecology 49 6. CONCLUSIONS 51 APPENDICES: 1. Bridge component numbering 52 2. Example of bridge recording form 53 3. Heritage evaluations 54 4. Bridge names 111 PART 2: SITE INVENTORY Indexes by: Name, type, townland, town, OFIAR number, component Townland, town, type, name, OFIAR number, component Town, type, name, OFIAR number, component National grid, type, name, OFIAR number, component Type, townland, town, name, OFIAR number, component Offaly CC bridge number, OFIAR number Site reports, listed by OFIAR number PREFACE This report, commissioned by Offaly County Council, presents the results of a survey of over 400 bridges of every type throughout the county.
[Show full text]