THE three spans of the 1856-built structure over the River Maigue viaduct at Adare on the Limerick to Foynes line were lifted out on September 13/14 to allow the refurbishment of the structure, and for the bridge abutments to be raised to accommodate the renewed structure.
Made up of two 7.52m long end-spans and an 18m long centre-span, the viaduct has two wrought-iron lattice plate girders supporting transverse steel beams, longitudinal steel waybeams, timber waybeams and decking. The wroughtiron central-span lattice plate girders are all that remains of the original construction. The transverse and longitudinal beams of the central span were renewed using steel sections and side spans of the structure with steel troughing in 1926.