Following a nine day sea journey from Rotterdam, the steel superstructure for the Samuel Beckett Bridge over the River Liffey last week arrived in Dublin.

The bridge is being constructed by in joint venture between Graham and Hollandia, a specialist steelwork company from Holland.

The bridge left Rotterdam on a barge on May Day, charted its way across the English Channel and the Irish Sea.

It then travelled through the Eastlink Toll Bridge during high tide on 13 May.

Due to open in early 2010 following finishing and commissioning works, it will link Guild Street on the northside of the City with Sir John Rogerson’s Quay on the southside - west of Cardiff Lane / Macken Street.

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The 123-metre structure weighs 2,300 tons, and is 28m wide and 45 metres in height. It will have four lanes with cycle tracks and footpaths on either side and will have the capability of opening through an angle of 90 degrees by rotating about a circular concrete pier.

Graham has been on site in central Dublin for the past year constructing the civil and marine works necessary to support the bridge.

As part of the civil and marine works, the reinforced concrete support pier has been cast in the River Liffey along with abutments behind the quay walls. The abutments and pier rest on piles up to 20 metres in length, which were bored into the limestone rock underneath the riverbed.

Dr Santiago Calatrava Valls, one of the world's best known architects and engineers, designed the Samuel Beckett Bridge.

(PR/JM)