An artist’s impression of the Narrow Water Bridge
A report in today’s Irish Times suggests that the Narrow Water Bridge project “hangs by a thread” and may be scrapped “within weeks” unless a funding shortfall is resolved urgently.
The newspaper reports that unless agreement on a funding package of up to €15 million is agreed upon soon then the EU money committed to the project earlier this year will have to be allocated elsewhere.
Despite governments on both sides of the Border agreeing to invest their own funds along with EU money towards the building of the structure earlier this year, their estimate of the cost of the bridge was well off.
That led to Louth County Council putting the project on hold but with the bulk of the money for the bridge coming form the European Regional Development Fund, any hopes of the plans being revived would surely be dead in the water were it to be withdrawn.
According to sources of The Irish Times, the scheme has “about a month” to secure the required funds. While councils in Louth and Down have been working hard on securing additional money along with a private benefactor, the gap is of such a scale that it would require intervention from eith the Irish or Northern Irish government to save the project at this stage.
Stormont has already said that they would be making no additional funds available, while it is unlikely the Irish government will inject money into it in the lead-up to the Budget.
The current Narrow Water Bridge project commenced in 2008 when Louth County Council engaged Roughan O’Donovan Consulting Engineers to design a bridge in keeping with the outstanding natural beauty in the area. The same company designed the Mary McAleese Boyne Valley Bridge on the M1 Dublin-Belfast motorway.
The single-carriageway, 195 metres cable-stayed Narrow Water Bridge is designed to connect Cornamucklagh near Omeath, Co Louth with Narrow Water near Warrenpoint, Co Down and the total length of the proposed scheme is 620m.
The proposed location for the bridge is the scene of one of the bloodiest attacks during the Troubles, in August 1979, in which the IRA killed 18 British soldiers and seriously injured six more.
Source: Narrow Water bridge project hangs by a thread (The Irish Times)
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