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

  • Software innovations aid road design
    February 24, 2012
    As an aid to design, construction software continues to be a foundation stone in new project development. Autodesk is working with the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) and the Incheon Urban Development Corporation (IUDC) to cooperate in the creation of Asia's first Digital City for Incheon.
  • Sandvik’s single brand celebration
    July 17, 2012
    The Extec and Fintec product lines of mobile crushing and screening equipment have been formally integrated and rebranded as part of Sandvik Mining and Construction's product offering. The range, under a single brand, is signified by new model nomenclature and machine colours, and a worldwide launch at a global customer event that attracted over 1,000 visitors, with people attending from a variety of places including Venezuela, China, Spain, Ireland, Norway and Scotland. Reflecting on the special four-day i
  • Pre-stressed bridge decks use modular formwork system
    July 9, 2012
    Imaginative formwork, often using modular components, is helping to shape some challenging bridges worldwide. Patrick Smith reports Traffic volumes in and around Prague have swollen massively in recent years, pushing the existing road network to the limits of its capacity. To permanently ease congestion in the Czech capital's centre, a multi-lane orbital motorway is under construction as a high capacity bypass for central Prague and to link up all the motorways and other major highways radiating from the ci
  • Europe extends engine emissions deadline
    July 16, 2020
    Europe is extending the engine emissions deadline.