Is Ballinatray a bridge too far?

By Dan Walsh at Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District Council meeting

Courtown received many favourable mentions at yesterday’s (Tuesday) March meeting of Gorey-Kilmuckridge Municipal District Council; the Courtown /Riverchapel Town Centre First Plan got an airing and so did the 5.6kms that is the incomplete Gorey to Courtown footpath, but crossing the iconic Ballinatray Bridge appears to be a bridge too far!

Director of Services with responsibility for roads and Deputy Chief Executive at Wexford County Council, Eamonn Hore, addressed the meeting and outlined very detailed plans for the completion of the footpath in the wake of a recent topographical survey that focussed on the footpath crossing the bridge.

Mr Hore outlined three options; (1) construction of a new bridge, (2) a cantilever deck (“an attachment to the exterior of the existing bridge”) and (3), a surface traffic control or STOP/GO system on the existing roadway. Then there is the matter of cost which would be estimated at around €2 million and in the region of €300,000 of that would be eaten up by consultants before any physical activity on site!

The councillors were totally against the STOP/GO system, so no change then from the last time the matter had been discussed at last December’s meeting. Cllr Anthony Donohoe stated that a STOP/GO system was, using racing parlance, a non-runner. He suggested maybe a suspension bridge would solve the problem, but Mr Hore reminded the meeting of the exorbitant cost that would involve. Cllr Joe Sullivan felt a 60km speed limit would increase safety measures along the footpath.

Cllr Diarmuid Devereux believed “the crowds that people talk about using that footpath don’t exist,” and that is from personal use. Cllr Devereux suggested bringing the existing footpath through the woods “down brickyard hill or to the Ballymoney turn off.” There was some support for taking the Courtown Woods route, but some expressed ‘safety’ fears.

So, definitely no support for the STOP/GO suggestion as it was generally felt that it would cause considerable congestion, particularly at holiday times, however, there was some support for looking at a one-way system and taking traffic out of Courtown and Riverchapel towards Bolaney and directly onto the M11?

Mr Hore suggested to the members that the footpath be completed to the Ballymoney turn-off this year to ensure funding and to explore ways of crossing the Ounavarra River or Ballinatray bridge or explore more alternatives afterwards. This was agreed by the Cathaoirleach Cllr Pip Breen and the members.

HISTORY; A work relief scheme organised by Lord Courtown in 1846 for the benefit of the starving poor consisted of drainage and the construction of a road southwards from Ballymoney crossroads to join Gorey and Courtown Harbour road.
In 1847, the present three-arch bridge at Ballinatray, once known as the Courtown Viaduct and at the time, was the highest stone bridge in the country.
Ballinatray Bridge is a 19th century civil engineering feat designed by James Barry Farrell, (1810-1893), who was the County Surveyor, and other similarly amazing works by him can be admired at Carrigmannon, (1844), near Killurin, and Corbally Bridge (1854) on the Enniscorthy to Oulart Road.