Monkstown to Rushbrooke Bridge

AugustusMinimus

As some may already know, there is a drive to build a tidal barrier in Cork instead of raising the quay walls.

A place identified for this barrier would be in the channel between Monkstown and Rushbrooke.

One suggestion I’ve seen would be to package the tidal barrier with a road bridge. A ferry currently operates between these 2 points.

Just how feasible would be a road bridge above a tidal barrier? Had this been done before. I would imagine that given the local road network, all HGVs would have to be banned from using this bridge. However it would be a great asset for local traffic.

Aontachtoir

I'd love to see a bridge from Passage/Monkstown to Rushbrooke (as long as traffic is pointed towards the M28, I don't want all the Cobh N25 commuters coming up the Rochestown Road past my house).

However, the tidal barrier solution seems to be pushed by Cork City's answer to the M28 Steering Group. Every indication is that it would be extraordinarily expensive and would be unlikely to protect the city against floods (which by and large come down the river, not up). Sort of like routing the M28 to the KRR because Bloomfield isn't perfect.

AugustusMinimus

Every flood in the last 20 years would have been avoided as the barrier would have kept the high tide out. In all of these cases, high tides (spring tides in 2 cases) were just as much a factor as the rain fall.

If it was fluvial flooding, then Cork should also flood at low tide. Has this ever happened?

Aontachtoir

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Every flood in the last 20 years would have been avoided as the barrier would have kept the high tide out. In all of these cases, high tides (spring tides in 2 cases) were just as much a factor as the rain fall.

If it was fluvial flooding, then Cork should also flood at low tide. Has this ever happened?

I don't know. I'm not an environmental engineer. When it comes to this project I'm going by Arup and the Office of Public Works' reports, which show a tidal barrier would be expensive, destructive of the local environment, require a significant amount of infrastructure changes around Cork Harbour (regardless of where it is built), and, worst of all, ultimately ineffective without a corresponding upstream solution.

To me the whole thing is just like the M28 - on one side are the OPW (TII and CCC in the other case) and independent engineering firms, and on the other side are a community group spreading falsehoods and demanding unrealistic and ineffective alternative solutions.

But I'm definitely still in favour of a bridge across the harbour!