€20m secured for new Kildare bridge
Newbridge
AFTER decades of planning and preparation, the prospect of a new bridge over the Liffey in Newbridge became real this week (16 June) when it was revealed that €20m has been secured for the project from the Department of Housing.
Local politician and long-time supporter of a new bridge Senator Fiona O’Loughlin revealed the news on Monday.
“€20m will cover the bridge and about 700m of new road,” she said.
“The funding is from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but the Department of Transport has been looking at the tendering documents for the consulting engineers for the project.
“I’ve been working on this for years. We would expect to see shovels in the ground next year, 2027”.
The cost of the bridge was formally estimated at between €12-15m, but this was back in 2019, however no more recent estimate has been made available since.
The bridge, as part of the Southern Ring Road into the town has been mooted for upwards of 30 years.
In February this year Kildare County Council secured €200,000 to advance design and prepare construction documents.
At that time cllr Chris Pender said the funding is not excessive in itself, but warned that how it is used will determine whether it delivers real progress or repeats work already completed.
“There is already an active and approved planning permission associated with this bridge, and under Irish planning law, permission runs with the land, not the original developer. That fact cannot be ignored,” he said.
Cllr Pender said the central issue is whether the council intends to reuse the existing permission and move directly toward construction readiness, or whether the project risks being pushed back into redesign and a fresh planning process.
“If this funding is used to adapt an already approved scheme to public infrastructure standards and bring it to tender stage, that is sensible and responsible. If it results in starting again, triggering new planning requirements, then people are right to question whether time and public money are being wasted.”
