The Boyne Viaduct (), a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

, or

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

, that crosses the

River Boyne The River Boyne ( or ''Abhainn na Bóinne'') is a river in Leinster, Ireland, the course of which is about long. It rises at Trinity Well, Newberry Hall, near Carbury, County Kildare, and flows north-east through County Meath to reach the ...

Drogheda Drogheda ( , ; , meaning "bridge at the ford") is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland, mostly in County Louth ...

, carrying the main

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

–

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

History

The viaduct was designed by the Irish civil engineer Sir

John Benjamin Macneill Sir John Benjamin Macneill FRS (1793 – 2 March 1880) was an Irish civil engineer of the 19th century, closely associated with Thomas Telford. His most notable projects were railway schemes in Ireland. Life He was born in Mountpleasant near th ...

using new mathematical stress analysis developed just a few years before by William Bindon Blood at

Queen's College, Galway The University of Galway () is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. The university was founded in 1845 as "Queen's College, Galway". It was known as "University College, Galway" (UCG) () from 1908 to 1997 and as ...

. Construction began on the bridge in 1853 and was completed in 1855. It was the seventh bridge of its kind in the world when built, and considered one of the wonders of the age. Before its construction, railway passengers had to make their way through the town of

from the stations on either side of the

until the construction of a temporary wooden bridge, which allowed trains to cross the river from May 1853 until the completion of the viaduct. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the viaduct was identified by the British as being of great strategic importance as part of the British plans for a counter-attack following a German invasion of Ireland. 2005 marked the 150th anniversary of the viaduct, and Iarnród Éireann and the

Railway Preservation Society of Ireland The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) is a railway preservation group founded in 1964 and operating throughout Ireland. Mainline steam train railtours are operated from Dublin, while short train rides are operated up and down th ...

ran a special service operated by a steam locomotive between

Drogheda railway station Drogheda MacBride railway station () is a railway station that serves Drogheda in County Louth, Ireland. Description The present station is located on a sharp curve on the southern approach to the Boyne Viaduct. Formerly there were three lin ...

and

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

Description

The viaduct comprises twelve stone arches on the south side and a further three on the north. It is located near a tight curve, which necessitates the slowing of trains as they approach. The central

Pratt truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

bridge was originally made of three iron spans that originally carried two tracks. When the bridge was refurbished in the 1930s, new steel girders replacing the ironworks were constructed inside the original bridge before the iron structure was removed. This allowed trains to continue running throughout the renewal process; however, the new bridge was no longer wide enough to carry two tracks. The northbound and southbound tracks were

interlaced Interlaced video (also known as interlaced scan) is a technique for doubling the perceived frame rate of a video display without consuming extra bandwidth. The interlaced signal contains two fields of a video frame captured consecutively. Th ...

so that one rail lay between the tracks in the opposite direction, as

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

and a single track would have required a

signal cabin On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timeta ...

on the north side of the viaduct. In 1932, the three spans over the river were replaced with the current iron trusses. These were built by the "Motherwell Bridge Engineering Company" with G.B. Howden as the chief engineer. When the tracks were relaid in the 1990s, singling was introduced, and the interlaced tracks were replaced with a single track over the viaduct and points at each side. The structure has been listed by the

National Inventory of Architectural Heritage The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) maintains a central database of the architectural heritage of the Republic of Ireland covering the period since 1700 in complement to the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, which focuses on arc ...

as a heritage structure.

Refurbishment

Over €6.1m was awarded for the refurbishment of the Boyne Viaduct financed through the European Union's INTERREG IVA Programme. The project involved several essential refurbishment activities, including steel repairs and full repainting, renewal of work over the viaduct, waterproofing of the deck, and installation of a new drainage system. The project was officially completed on 7 December 2015.

References

External links

Drogheda Boyne Viaduct Refurbishment Project
{{Coord, 53, 43, 00, N, 6, 20, 15, W, region:IE_type:landmark, display=title Bridges completed in 1855 Buildings and structures in Drogheda Railway bridges in the Republic of Ireland Transport in Drogheda Viaducts