Replacement of the railway bridge over the Awbeg River (shannonimages) 24th November 2011

THE replacement of the railway bridge over the Awbeg River, north of Buttevant town and south of Charleville train station, was a mammoth task involving a huge number of construction and support workers who had to complete the task over the October bank holiday weekend.

The main contractor for the project was the Athenry, Co. Galway based Coffey Construction Company under the direction of works manager, Cathal Coleman, engineer, Declan Flanagan and trainee structural engineer Caitriona Henn and foreman Declan Lawless.

They had just 60 hours to complete the bridge replacement starting on last Saturday night at 10pm when trains on the Cork/Dublin line were stopped and the track had to be back in operation on Sunday night.