Work starts on 6km Malahide cycle path 14 years after rail viaduct collapse

Fourteen years ago this month, a disaster was narrowly averted when an Irish Rail driver en route from Balbriggan to Connolly Station realised the track beneath his train with more than 50 passengers on board was starting to give way as he crossed the Broadmeadow viaduct.

He made it to Malahide station and raised the alarm. Minutes later, a 20m section of the bridge over the estuary collapsed into the sea.

The line was repaired and back up and running within three months. At the same time, Fingal County Council had the forethought to ask Irish Rail, as part of the repair work, to sink 11 columns into the sea beside the railway track to allow for the future development of a cycle path.

Cyclists expecting they would soon have significantly more pleasant journeys from Malahide to Donabate than dicing with death on the Swords dual carriageway were, however, to be disappointed. Despite being an objective of the next two county development plans, no progress was made on the Broadmeadow Way for a decade and it was 2019 before the council made an application to An Bord Pleanála for the project to proceed.

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This summer, work finally started on site with the installation of access roads and ground investigations along the rail line in advance of the major construction programme, with the route now scheduled to open in 2026.

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While progress on the 6km cyclepath from Malahide Castle to Newbridge House in Donabate may seem painfully slow, it is an extremely complex project, as Paul Carroll, senior engineer with the council, explains.

“It’s a unique project. There is no other scheme like this in Ireland or, indeed, in Europe, where we’re building a high quality amenity like this, beside a mainline rail viaduct that’s over 150 years old, that’s surrounded by water and that’s in a Special Area of Conservation.”

The environmental sensitivities of the estuary, particularly in relation to birds, means work can only take place during a small window every year.

“We can only work during the summer when there are no wintering birds on the estuary. We plan to do our advance works contracts this summer and then we’re aiming to work over the following two summer seasons to do the bridge and the viaduct works across the estuary,” says Carroll. “In the meantime, we will be doing other landward side works, which aren’t subject to those planning restrictions and that will also take place over the next two to three years.”

In addition, the need to keep the trains running means work along the rail line can only happen at night, he says, with the contractor taking possession of the line from around midnight to 5am. “It is a slow process and it’s a painstaking process but the end product is going to be in place for decades and it needs to be done right. We think we’re on the right track with that.”

Anyone who has taken the train across the viaduct will immediately appreciate what a spectacular cycle and walking route the completed greenway will be. It also has the potential to be more than just a leisure route, however, by providing a direct link bringing locals from what is still largely the rural village of Donabate to the bustling town of Malahide in less than 15 minutes.

The Broadmeadow Way is just the first of three coastal cycling schemes planned for Fingal. The council intends to make an application in the next four to six months for a segregated cycle route from Malahide south through Portmarnock to Sutton, linking in with the existing Clontarf cyclepath that runs along Dublin Bay and which the city council is in the process of extending to Connolly Station.

While to the north, it is developing the Fingal Coastal Way, a 32km route that will link Donabate to Rush, Loughshinny, Skerries and Balbriggan. “This year, we would hope to be publishing our preferred route for that before lodging a planning application in 2024,” Carroll says.

The council hopes to start work on the 8km Sutton to Malahide route in 2026 and complete it by 2028, two years after the Broadmeadow scheme opens.. Ultimately, it will deliver a segregated coastal route all the way from Dublin city centre to Balbriggan and has the potential to stretch even further, north and south, Carroll says.

“This fits into the wider East Coast Trail, a national level scheme eventually connecting Wexford to Northern Ireland. But if we can get the section in Fingal complete, we would be delighted with that. It will be a real eye-catching, marquee section of the route in terms of the scenery of the Fingal coastline that would be on display to residents and to visitors to the area.”