Skip to main content

Irish bridge's CE marking

With the aid of services provided by Laidler Associates the refurbished Portumna road bridge in Galway has become the first bridge in the Ireland to carry European CE marking. The CE marking was needed because the swing bridge has moving parts, and falls within the scope of the Machinery Directive.
February 14, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Portumna Bridge during refurbishment
With the aid of services provided by 1398 Laidler Associates the refurbished Portumna road bridge in Galway has become the first bridge in the Ireland to carry European CE marking.

The CE marking was needed because the swing bridge has moving parts, and falls within the scope of the Machinery Directive.

Spanning the Shannon River, the E2.2 million Portumna Bridge was originally built in 1911 and is part of the busy N65 route that links the counties of Galway and Tipperary.

When it was decided that this ageing but vital structure needed to be refurbished, Waterways Ireland awarded the order for design specification, contract preparation and project supervision to Royal Haskoning, who appointed L&M Keating to carry out the building and installation work.

Royal Haskoning recommended that Laidler Associates should be used to provide the consultancy services needed to ensure that the bridge met all relevant legal requirements and, in particular the requirements for CE marking. After these preliminary sessions, Laidler Associates carried out detailed hazard assessments covering all aspects of the bridge design and construction. Consultants from the company also visited the site during the construction work and, when the work was complete, they carried out a detailed final inspection before certifying the structure.

Jane Arbuckle, technical director, mechanical and electrical engineering at Royal Haskoning, said: "The regulatory compliance and certification work carried out for us by Laidler Associates went very smoothly."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Europe's roads need innovation and research
    April 12, 2012
    FEHRL's fifth SERRP is set to drive road transport into the 21st century The Forum of European National Highway Research Laboratories (FEHRL) has published its fifth Strategic European Road Research Programme (SERPP V), which tackles the research and innovation challenges facing the European road and transport system now and in the future. Formed in 1989, FEHRL is a registered international association comprising more than 40 national research/technical centres, and its new programme reflects the techni
  • Royal Haskoning DHV’s Saudi bottleneck busting contract
    July 9, 2012
    Royal Haskoning DHV has been selected to tackle 30 major traffic bottlenecks in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh over the next two years. ArRiyadh Development Authority (ADA) decided to award the US$1.87million (€1.5mn) contract to the Dutch project management, engineering and consultancy service provider following a call for tenders. The population of Riyadh has risen dramatically over the past few decades and currently stands at around 5.4 million and, as a result, the city's roads and motorways are reach
  • Highly relevant: Denmark’s asset management for bridges
    July 12, 2019
    A well-maintained road bridge network is vital to Denmark’s economy. David Arminas caught up with Niels Pedersen, head of bridges at the Danish Road Directorate Denmark, being a country mainly of islands, relies on its bridges and tunnels to help unify the nation culturally. It also means that they are vastly more important to the economic well-being of the nation than in most other states. The World Bank has classified Denmark as a high-income economy. In 2017 it ranked 16th globally in terms of gros
  • Italy’s renaissance bridge
    July 21, 2020
    Italian consulting company Italferr created a digital twin for designing the new Genoa bridge and won accolades at Bentley Systems: Bentley Year in Infrastructure Awards