The Rosie Hackett Bridge (
Irish: ''Droichead Róise Haicéid'') is a road and tram bridge in
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 ...
, Ireland, which opened on 20 May 2014.
Spanning the
River Liffey
The River Liffey (Irish language, Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major Tributary, tributaries include t ...
and joining
Marlborough Street to
Hawkins Street, it is used solely by public transport, taxis, cyclists and pedestrians. It is 26 metres wide and 48 metres long,
and is a single span, smooth concrete structure, with the underside of the bridge designed to be as high above the water as possible so that river traffic is not impeded.
It was built to carry the extended
Luas
Luas (, Irish language, Irish: ; meaning 'speed') is a tram system in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. There are two main lines: the Green Line (Luas), Green Line, which began operating on 30 June 2004, and the Red Line (Luas), Red Line ...
Green line, and was budgeted at €15 million.
It is named for trade unionist
Rosie Hackett (1893–1976).
Use
The bridge carries the Luas Green Line, which connects
via an extension with the Luas
Red Line, and opened in December 2017.
The bridge is also used by other public transport services, including
Dublin Bus
Dublin Bus () is an Irish State-owned enterprise, state-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 145 million passengers in 2023. It is a subsidiary of CIÉ, Córas Iompair Éireann ...
routes 14, 15, 27, 27x, 33x, 33d, 44, 61, 142 and 151, certain
Bus Éireann
Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with the exception of Dublin, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidiary of C ...
services, taxis, bicycles and motorbikes.
Planning and construction
The bridge was proposed by
Dublin City Council
Dublin City Council () is the Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local authority of the city of Dublin in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a city council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. Until 2001, the authority was k ...
to carry the southbound line of the Luas Green line, to allow for the reorganisation of certain
Dublin Bus
Dublin Bus () is an Irish State-owned enterprise, state-owned bus operator providing services in Dublin. By far the largest bus operator in the city, it carried 145 million passengers in 2023. It is a subsidiary of CIÉ, Córas Iompair Éireann ...
routes, and to ease congestion by providing additional capacity for buses and taxis crossing the Liffey.
Commentators argued that, being just 90 metres downstream from the very wide O'Connell Bridge, the new bridge could not bring many benefits, and any benefit would be cancelled out by the negative impact on the city's classical Georgian urban plan - especially to the symmetry of spacing between existing Liffey bridges.
Ultimately, following an environmental impact assessment and
Bord Pleanála approval in 2009, the project was approved without any changes to the planned location.
Roughan and O'Donovan Consulting Engineers and Sean Harrington Architects were appointed by Dublin City Council to design and plan the bridge, and Graham Construction (who also constructed the
Samuel Beckett Bridge) were awarded the construction contract.
Preparatory works commenced in late 2011, with bridge construction beginning in early 2012.
The bridge was officially opened on 20 May 2014,
with Luas services officially commencing on 9 December 2017.
Name
In its planning and construction phases, the bridge was designated by the working name of the Marlborough Street Public Transport Priority Bridge.
Dublin City Council invited nominations from the public for the bridge's final name. Ten nominations were referred to the council's naming committee, which used a
Borda count
The Borda method or order of merit is a positional voting rule that gives each candidate a number of points equal to the number of candidates ranked below them: the lowest-ranked candidate gets 0 points, the second-lowest gets 1 point, and so on ...
to shortlist five names for a plenary meeting of the council, where another Borda count on 2 September 2013 chose to name it after
Rosie Hackett, a trade unionist and republican revolutionary.
Hackett had been nominated by three women members of
Labour Youth
Labour Youth is the youth wing of the Labour Party of Ireland. Membership is open to those aged from 16 to 30 years old.
History 1979–2000
Labour Youth succeeded the Young Labour League as a full section of the Labour Party in 1979, unde ...
.
The other four shortlisted were
Willie Bermingham,
Frank Duff,
Kathleen Mills, and
Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...
.
The De Borda Institute asserted that the name selection process was the first time an Irish elected chamber used a non-
majoritarian decision-making methodology.
Some media reports characterised it as the first Liffey bridge named after a woman,
though other bridges used to be.
Footnotes
References
External links
Luas Cross City Project Website "Naming a Bridge", read by Catherine Anne Cullen
{{Authority control
Bridges in Dublin (city)
Luas
2014 establishments in Ireland
Bridges completed in 2014
Railway bridges in the Republic of Ireland
21st-century architecture in the Republic of Ireland