2003: The Introduction of an Irish Bridge

June 9, 2003

In the eastern region of the Republic of Ireland, a bridge in the Boyne Valley was formally opened to motor vehicle traffic. This bridge, spanning the River Boyne, is located about two miles (3.2 kilometers) west of Drogheda (a town straddling the boundary between Counties Meath and Louth of the province of Leinster).

Originally called the Boyne River Bridge, this structure is a key link in the M1 motorway. Along with being a major portion of the N1 national primary road, M1 is part of European route E01.

The Boyne River Bridge was built by the British contractor Cleveland Bridge & Engineering Company, with construction starting in May 2000. This bridge became the first cable-stayed bridge in the world to be built using the incremental launching method (ILM) for the installation of the superstructure. With a length of 1,156.5 feet (352.5 meters), this bridge was also Ireland’s longest cable-stayed bridge until the completion of the 1,525.6-foot (465-meter)-long Rover Suir Bridge in the southern region of the country in 2009.

At the time of the Boyne River Bridge’s opening, the rich heritage of the area surrounding that bridge was likewise highlighted. “Standing more than 300 feet [91.4 meters] above the River Boyne, Drogheda’s record-breaking cable stay bridge will undoubtedly be a valued modern day structure complementing centuries of local history that surround it,” asserted the Irish Independent daily newspaper about a month before the inauguration of the bridge. A major event that took place that part of the world in 1690 was the Battle of the Boyne, in which the armies of King William III of England defeated the forces of his deposed predecessor James II.

A decade after its debut, the name of the Boyne River Bridge was changed in honor of Ireland’s eighth president. Mary McAleese had served as president from 1997 to 2011. This renaming of the bridge after McAleese was jointly agreed up by the Meath and Loath County Councils. On June 8, 2013, she was among those who attended the ceremony in which the rechristening of the structure as the Mary McAleese Boyne Valley Bridge was officially announced.

Photo Credit: Peter Gerken (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en)

For more information on the Mary McAleese Boyne Valley Bridge (originally known as the Boyne River Bridge), please check out https://structurae.net/en/structures/mary-mcaleese-boyne-valley-bridge