Project Description
The road development included the realignment of 1.8km of the N26 at Cloongullane, approximately 3.4km north-west of Swinford. The project crosses the River Moy Special Area of Conservation (SAC).
The road development included the following;
- 1.8km of Type 2 Single Carriageway road (predominantly offline).
- A new clear span bridge crossing of the River Moy (Downstream of the existing bridge)
- Culvert over the Pollsharvoge River
- Culvert over the Swinford River
- Local road realignments
- Accommodation works/farm accesses
Crane Assembly - Beam Lift
A steel beam lift took place on Friday October 15th and and a further steel beam lift will take place on Wednesday October 20th (tentative - weather dependant) for the new River Moy Bridge as part of the N26 Cloongullane Realignment Project.
The beam lift will be carried out using a Liebherr LR 1600/2 Crawler Crane which will lift the steel beams into place, in braced pairs.
The beams were prefabricated at Thompsons Engineering facility in Carlow and were then transported to site in six sections with two beams braced together. Welding, grinding and painting works were completed on the N26 Cloongullane Site. The steel beams are 85.2m in length and 3.325m in height and when braced together prior to being lifted into place they will weigh approximately 250 tonnes.
The project was managed by Mayo County Council’s National Roads Office (NRO) and funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). The designer is Roughan & O’Donovan-AECOM and the contractor is BAM Civil Ltd.
Videos and Images from Steel Beam Lift and Crane Assembly
Timelapse & drone footage from the steel beam lifts that took place on October 15th and October 20th and the asssembly of the Liebherr LR 1600/2 Crawler Crane in addition to some images taken at the site are available in the galleries further down this page.
To view the full live stream broadcast of both steel beam lifts, click here to view on our YouTube channel
​Current Project Phase
The project is currently at Phase 7 (Complete) of the TII Project Management Guidelines.
The main construction contract was awarded to Contractor BAM Civil Ltd. on 13th October 2020. The road was officially opened in October 2022.
River Moy Bridge
A key aspect of the project was the construction of a new bridge over the environmentally sensitive River Moy Special Area of Conservation (SAC) to replace the existing stone arch bridge. The new bridge comprises a single span over the River Moy and therefore no in-stream works are required. The bridge is a steel composite beam structure with reinforced concrete abutments set back approximately 10m from the riverbanks. The span between supports is 83.1m.