Animals burn 400m of the Boyne boardwalk at Drogheda

Deleted User wrote: »

I seen today they're already underway sorting it.

JCB dragged the burned wreck away, they cut it off from the undamaged section, and have a load of stones in there now. I hope they get it back to normal as soon as.

They've also strimmed back all of the hedging and overgrowth. I presume that was planned, anyway.


It does bug me that they're gonna stick down a plywood alternative for the moment though. Surely a ply alternative, that has to be pulled up and replaced with the proper stuff, is just kicking the can down the road a bit? Would it not make more sense to get stuck in, get the proper materials in and go for a proper repair straightaway.

I don't think m/any would object to them skipping the tendering process and simply reverting to whoever did the initial install of the boardwalk. I know 'that's not the way it's done', but what harm would it do given the circumstances.

With the Fleadh just 2 weeks away I would say that's their priority - get something in place quickly. At least it means the boardwalk can reopen.
I'd imagine sourcing the recyclable materials for the real deal and getting that put in would take more than 2 weeks!!

Plus if its public money (taxpayer's!) they simply cant skip the tendering process (creating precedent surely)

We should be thankful something is being done quickly and we probably have the Fleadh to thank for that!

So it seems the stone I seen being put in place is the temporary solution.


So it will now be, i presume, a hardcore base and a compacted gravel finish on top of it.

Better than Ply, I suppose, but in relation to sourcing the correct materials, I doubt it would be that difficult? I'd imagine it's a common enough boardwalk design/material and not unique to Drogheda?

That said, they reckon Eddie Phelan (a structural engineer i do believe, and chairman of the committee down there) reckons a cost of 150-200k to fix the section.


Now, call me mad, but is that not an eye-wateringly expensive, borderline obnoxious price?

As far as I am aware, the initial boardwalk project was 850,000. This damaged section is not 1/5th of the boardwalk. There's no 'trial and error' to see what works best or a risk of it collapsing due to the wrong materials. It's a copy/paste job of what was already there.


150-200k sounds like someone chancing their arm. The 'insurance job' price rather than the 'real' price.

IvoryTower wrote: »

be nice if they came out and said what the 10k that was raised will go towards

I'm still adamant that should go towards CCTV. You'd only need one camera either end. Tap into the electricity supply off the Cable Bridge and install one that side of the boardwalk at the ramparts junction. Then use Oldbridge's power to get another one overlooking that side of the boardwalk.


If anything happens on the boardwalk you'd probably not see it take place, but you'd have a good idea who was on the boardwalk at the time of the assault/robbery/etc. taking place.


I know 10k wouldn't cover it (even though it's loads of money and really should cover it) but it would surely pay towards the cost.


I think Duleek got 11 Cameras installed and set up for €50k. No reason you couldn't stick 2-3 cameras on the boardwalk with 10k?

Took a walk on the boardwalk today.

The burned part of the walk has been replaced with a gravel path, which is mostly compacted down to near-concrete levels. I presume that what will happen here (you heard it here first!) is that Meath CoCo will get the money to return the boardwalk to it's former glory, but instead, will tarmac the gravel area and leave it as a footpath section of the walk.

So the boardwalk will never return to that section in my opinion (sad as it is).

The (I suppose) plus side is that I have heard a name of a person floating around that's allegedly responsible. I'm hoping that'll spread a bit further around town. Of course, nothing will ever happen him in the judicial world. Unless the turns himself in and brings the petrol/gloves and a selfie of him lighting the fire, the Gardai will likely have no interest. Such is this great little country of ours.



Despite the (still!) burning smell, the walk is still a lovely one and I'm glad it's something I can still get out and do (id be on it regularly).

I notice the remains of the boardwalk are stored on OPWs land beside Oldbridge. It's a bit mad looking at it torn up out of place. Looks like a broken and burned rollercoaster track.

Thought I saw something mentioned recently about a link from Kildare up as far as newgrange.

At this stage though I'd be happy just for them to make good the section between the park and where the boardwalk begins proper. Rode it recently on a MTB and it wasn't pleasant.