New bridge for pedestrians to be installed in Cork

Cork City Council will this week oversee the installation of the latest crossing of the river Lee when a new €5 million pedestrian bridge will be put in place.

The 165-tonne Mary Elmes Bridge will be brought by barge from Cobh and lowered into place across the north channel of the Lee between Merchant's Quay and St Patrick's Quay to become the 31st bridge in the city.

A Cork City Council spokeswoman said the bridge will be lifted by cranes on to a barge at Doyle's shipping yard in Cobh.

It is hoped the barge will travel to Brian Boru Bridge on Thursday or Friday and have it in position for installation on Saturday.

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The spokeswoman stressed that the installation is weather-dependent but engineers are confident it will be done on schedule. The bridge was fabricated by Thompsons of Carlow and transported in nine sections to Cobh for assembly.

It is expected the bridge will carry up to 11,000 pedestrians and cyclists daily between the Victorian Quarter and the city centre.

Council officials have estimated that the bridge will be used by 3.9 million people a year.

Mary Elmes, who was born in Ballintemple on Cork's southside in 1908 and died in France in 2002, worked as a nurse during the Spanish civil war. She later fled to France where she was credited with saving the lives of 200 Jewish children during the Holocaust.

In 2015, she became she became the first and only Irish person honoured as Righteous Among the Nations by the state of Israel in recognition of her work.