Malahide Media Coverage

[roamling]

Independent, Thursday September 10 2009

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...s-1882404.html

By Fergus Black

Thursday September 10 2009

WORK on the €4m reconstruction of the rail link which collapsed into the sea is on target and expected to be completed by the end of October.

Irish Rail hopes to have the line back in use by the end of November, which is good news for thousands of commuters forced on to buses following last month's collapse of the rail viaduct over the Broadmeadow Estuary in Malahide, north Co Dublin.

Work to restore the rail link involves a number of major parallel projects. Engineers have begun filling the breach in the causeway that is believed to have undermined one of the piers supporting the viaduct and leading to the collapse.

The damaged pier is being reconstructed and 10 other piers that support the viaduct are being strengthened while substantial repair works to the weir beneath the bridge are being carried out to protect the estuary environment.

But the investigation into the cause of the near disaster will take six months to complete and will also include the inspection of 84 bridges that cross open water.

The company also revealed yesterday that changes in safety inspections to rail lines would be considered as part of the major investigation into the collapse. While current inspections meet international standards, the type of inspections and how often they are carried out will be reconsidered.

Irish Rail also confirmed yesterday that the restored line at Malahide would be continuously monitored above and below the waterline while the investigation continued.

Clad in hard hats, high visibility clothing, lifejackets and wellington boots, members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport joined senior Irish Rail officials at the scene of the near calamity that could have sent rail carriages and hundreds of passengers plummeting into four metres of water.

As they looked at the yawning gap where the rail link collapsed, committee TDs Fergus O'Dowd and Darragh O'Brien and Senator John Ellis were briefed by rail officials, including company chairman John Lynch and chief civil engineer Eamonn Balance.

The visit came ahead of a hearing next week when officials from Irish Rail, the Rail Safety Commission and the Department of Transport will be quizzed on the incident and future safety measures.

Five days before the collapse, a group of Sea Scouts raised concerns about erosion to the piers holding up the rail line and the following day an engineer inspected the viaduct, finding no visible structural problems.

Two days later, a track monitoring vehicle travelled over the line and found the railway was operating as designed. It was on August 21 that an alert train driver raised the alarm and the line was shut down.

Defending rail inspection standards, Irish Rail chairman John Lynch described the collapse as a "unique situation" and said even had an engineer walked the bridge every day, he would not have found problems beneath the waterline.

Inspections

Under current regulations, bridge structural inspections take place every two years with below-the-waterline inspections once every six years while lines are "walked" three times a week.

- Fergus Black

[roamling]

[quote=roamling;49312]Independent, Thursday September 10 2009

Defending rail inspection standards, Irish Rail chairman John Lynch described the collapse as a "unique situation" and said even had an engineer walked the bridge every day, he would not have found problems beneath the waterline.

... that is why the bridge should have been inspected more detailed after the change of sea flow was reported.

[Mark]

[quote=roamling;49313]

Originally Posted by roamling

Independent, Thursday September 10 2009



... that is why the bridge should have been inspected more detailed after the change of sea flow was reported.

Eh, the problem was underneath the bridge Mr. Lynch..

[losexpectation]

they still seem to be refusing to acknowledge lack of action to check the weir, you guys should be nailing them down on that.

[roamling]

http://www.independent.ie/breaking-n...e-1887332.html

Wednesday September 16 2009

The chairman of CIE is due to be questioned about the collapse of the rail viaduct in the Malahide area of Dublin when he appears before the Oireachtas Transport Committee today.

Disaster was narrowly avoided when a 20-metre section of the bridge collapsed last month shortly after a passing train driver noticed subsidence around the rail line.

It later emerged that concerned locals had reported a possible problem with erosion to Iarnrod Eireann.

An inspection was carried out, but it failed to notice that one of the support piers was in danger of collapse.

Officials from the Rail Safety Committee, the Department of Transport and the Rail Accident Investigation Unit are also due to appear before today's meeting.

[roamling]

and a first glimpse whats going on in the hearing... at least somebody is asking the right questions...

Irish Times, September 16, 2009, 13:06

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...breaking38.htm

Irish Rail accused over bridge collapse

Senior Irish Rail executives were today accused of playing with thousands of people's lives by not closing a busy rail line when safety concerns were raised five days prior to its collapse.

Labour Party transport spokesman Tommy Broughan said countless lives could have been lost when a bridge on the cross-border Dublin-Belfast rail line crumbled into the sea near Malahide last month.

Mr Broughan told TDs and Senators that a member of the public had flagged up concerns about one of the piers supporting the bridge to Irish Rail less than a week before the collapse.

“We could have been attending funerals for weeks. This could have been one of the most horrendous events in the history of our country,” Mr Broughan said.

“Why didn’t you stop the trains on August 17th?” He added: “Why did you take a chance on August 17th?

But Iarnród Éireann chief executive Richard Fearn said the complaint was taken seriously and a structural engineer was sent to examine the scene.

“We did not take a chance, we reacted properly and professionally and when we got further information that there were no immediate risk but there were issues that needed to be looked at we sent a structural engineer to do an assessment,” Mr Fearn said.

[roamling]

“We did not take a chance, we reacted properly and professionally and when we got further information that there were no immediate risk but there were issues that needed to be looked at we sent a structural engineer to do an assessment,” Mr Fearn said.

PS: on a personal note - I was on the last train northbound before the bridge collapsed and I have no symphathy for the all the excuses Irish Rail has for an answer to all this.