There was no formal ceremony as the Obelisk Bridge at Oldbridge reopened this afternoon, ten days ahead of schedule, having been closed to traffic since August 1 last year.
There was no ribbon cutting ceremony or photo ops, no retiring to a hotel for tea and buns afterwards, the workers just moved the barriers to one side and the traffic appeared as if from nowhere.
First across the newly opened bridge were cyclists Linda Meehan and Jimmy Duffy, both members of the Drogheda Cycling Group.
There was no representation from either Louth or Meath County Councils, the local authorities who had been cooperating on the project, which was carried out by Jon’s Engineering.
Election candidate and long-time Councillor and Mayor of Drogheda Frank Godfrey was there however and he chose the occasion for an impromptu launch of his 2024 election campaign, saying that, if elected, he will be a “local and vocal’ and an experienced independent voice.
Frank has a style all of his own but, to be fair, he has campaigned for many years to have the Obelisk Bridge repaired and today he repeated his claim that he was the first local representative to express concerns over the structural safety of the historic Boyne Obelisk Bridge several decades ago.
Frank said he was delighted to see the bridge reopened but told Drogheda Life he wished there had been more imaginative thinking on the part of the two County councils.
He said that instead of just reopening the Obelisk Bridge, they should have built a new bridge further downstream to take motorised traffic away from the narrow and twisty road at Oldbridge and leave the Obelisk Bridge for pedestrians and cyclists.
During the bridge reconstruction, Frank led the campaign at the failure of Louth and Meath County Councils and Transport Infrastructure Ireland to provide regular users an alternative to having to pay M1 tolls, which added extra cost and distance to their journeys as well as causing congestion in central Drogheda.
That campaign led to a growing awareness of the injustice of the M1 tolls being imposed on Drogheda and East Meath commuters and others travelling to and from Ireland’s largest town, also highlighting no proper traffic planning in the area
“Louth and Meath County Councils and Transport Infrastructure Ireland have treated our people as second class citizens,” said Frank, adding “smaller towns like Balbriggan and Dundalk do not have a toll on their doorstep. The discrimination against the thousands of motorists from Drogheda and East Meath who have to pay these penal tolls must end.
I was disappointed last year that less than a handful of the seventeen councillors in the area bothered to campaign for local people. I will be ‘local and vocal’ as I always have been, when it comes to issues important to our local communities.”
Frank says he is concerned also that new communities taking up residence on Drogheda’s Northern Cross Route will add to the daily local exodus of commuters, given the dismal failure of the IDA to create any meaningful employment locally.
“Those new residents will either be forced to pay the rip-off tolls or add further congestion in downtown Drogheda and onwards through a congested Julianstown to avoid the MI Toll,” said Frank.
