Planned bridge over Dodder is dropped

A planned third crossing of the River Dodder in south-west Dublin has been removed from the South Dublin County Council Development Plan. The removal comes just months before the closure of the Firhouse Bridge and will bring the number of crossings of the river in the heavily congested area down to one.

At present there are two main crossing points of the River Dodder for traffic between the south-west suburbs and Dublin centre. These are the Firhouse and the Templeogue bridges. Dublin County Council, and latterly South Dublin County Council, has long expected the Firhouse Bridge to be closed because of its position in relation to the Southern Cross Motorway. Although the motorway will be carried across the same route by a new bridge, this bridge will not be open to local, suburban traffic. Work has already begun on the motorway crossing and the present bridge is expected to be closed by next April.

The council had planned to replace the Firhouse Bridge with another crossing of the Dodder. However, while the proposal was included as a road objective in the council's Draft Development Plan 1998, after the statutory three-month consultation period it was removed by a vote of the elected members.

Its deletion has been criticised by the Fine Gael spokeswoman on Dublin traffic, Ms Olivia Mitchell, who says the move "has national implications".