The Waterford Bypass Opens after years of planning and waiting. The new Waterford city by-pass has been officially opened 10 months ahead of schedule (due to good weather during building). The bridge and bypass were opened three and a half years after work commenced. At 5:59 pm this evening I tried to cross the bridge, but I was told, 5 minutes … so I went back to the Millinabro roundabout, and went back up by this time the bridge was open. It is an impressive structure but you are only on the bridge and you are off it again – the 465 metre span is traversed at 100kph.

One glitch today was that the automated barrier was not working, which caused a bit of a delay. Overall, the surface is excellent and you can connect with the Cork Road (near the Motor Mile) or continue to Kilmeaden. The Waterford bypass includes Ireland’s longest cable-stayed bridge at 465m long, extending between the Waterford and Kilkenny banks of the River Suir – but the bridge to date has no name. The Bridge is Tolled with motorbikes paying a toll of €1, cars €1.90, coaches and small trucks €3.40, and up to €6.10 for trucks with four or more axles. However this evening the toll was €1.20 for cars for some reason.

My Annoyance before Waterford Bypass Opens … I was really looking forward to walking over the bridge – the official line in Early October was that “On the weekend before the official opening, the bridge would be open to the public“. I think it was a bit inconsiderate, to the public of Waterford, in the decision to open the bridge to the public between 1.30 and 4.30 on MONDAY when most people were at work!!! I believe this decision would have been made by the company that runs it, Celticroads, and not the City Council but at the same time …. Thanks a bunch !!

My next job is to get some nice nighttime shots of the bridge all lit up.