The 207-year-old bridge was described as looking “very shabby” by City East councillor, Terry O’Flaherty (Ind ), in a meeting of Galway City Councillors this week.
Officials informed elected members that a topographical and photographic survey was complete after securing €150,000 of funding from the Department of Transport, and that a temporary ‘toucan’ pedestrian crossing on the western, Cathedral side of the bridge will be constructed in the coming months.
This signal-controlled crossing of University Road will link the Droichead an Dóchais pedestrian and cycle bridge plaza to the footway toward Fisheries Field, alongside John Behan’s ‘Equality Emerging’ statue.
O’Flaherty called for the Georgian balustrade along the Salmon Weir Bridge to be sandblasted and painted as a matter of urgency, while Councillor Eddie Hoare (FG ) demanded that engineers publish a timeline for the temporary pedestrian crossings on its west side.
Active Travel officials rejected Social Democrats’ councillor Alan Curran’s accusation that the temporary crossing prioritised traffic flow over pedestrian safety.
“Safety trumps traffic,” said Director of Services, Derek Pender, who indicated a survey shows 2,000 pedestrians, or one person every 22 seconds, crosses University Road at this point every day.
The temporary crossing is being introduced until the BusConnects Cross City Link Project transforms the Salmon Weir Bridge into a priority bus route.
Councillor Frank Fahy (FG ) reminded officials that the Salmon Weir Bridge was supposed to be cleaned up in 2015 as part of Galway Cathedral’s 50th anniversary.
“It’s the 60th anniversary now, and although I understand the area is a SAC [Special Area of Conservation] with ecological concerns, it shouldn’t take this long to organise a lick of paint,” he said.
