Shannon Bridge Crossing taking shape

ONE OF EAST CLARE’s biggest road projects is taking shape.

As part of the Shannon Bridge Crossing, the first steel beam has been positioned as. The section is 40 metres long and weights 40 tonnes, it needed a 500 tonne crane to lift it into place in the past fortnight.

On the shores of the River Shannon, work is progressing on the proposed Killaloe Bypass, Shannon Bridge Crossing and R494 Improvement Scheme.

This will provide a western bypass of Killaloe, a new bridge crossing of the River Shannon and an upgrade of the existing R494 regional road from Ballina to the N7 at Birdhill.

An approximate 6.2km in length, the scheme will cross the River Shannon about 1km to the south of the existing Killaloe Bridge, and will cross the Kilmastulla River, a tributary of the River Shannon’s and part of the Lower River Shannon Special Area of Conservation (SAC), on the R494.

Additional beams are set to be installed over the next three months, a total of twelve will be needed for the new bridge which is 217m in length. Specialist transport trailers were needed by Whittons Transport to bring the first structural beam to Killaloe which was manufactured in Thompsons in Carlow.

Senior officials in Clare County Council are confident the Shannon Bridge Crossing will be completed on schedule before mid-summer 2025. Extreme weather events such as Storm Agnes and Storm Babet caused “unavoidable programme slippage but every endeavour will be made to recover time,” a spokesperson for the local authority stated.