Ilex, the urban regeneration company today announced the arrival of the first two sections of the Peace Bridge at Lisahally, having been transported from Wales by land and sea.
Brenda Fraser, Ilex’s Director of Development explained: “The remaining eight river sections of the Peace Bridge will be delivered over the next five weeks after which it will be assembled and transported by barge on the River Foyle. This is an important event and in September everyone in the city will be able to follow the journey of the bridge from Lisahally to Ebrington where it will be erected”.
The third bridge across the River Foyle, the Peace Bridge has been given £13,343,476 from the European Union’s PEACE III Programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB). The programme’s theme of Creating Shared Public Space aims to support large scale infrastructure developments that will tackle problems of separated communities by creating genuine new shared space or transforming contested space.
The contract for the design and construction of the Peace Bridge has been awarded to NI company Graham Construction and a high quality design and construction team comprising of Wilkinson Eyre, London (architects), AECOM, Beckenham, Kent (structural engineers) and Rowecord, Wales (steelwork fabrication).
ENDS
For further information contact Mo Durkan, Ilex - 028 7126 9226 or 07917 544297. Press release and bridge images are downloadable on www.ilex-urc.com
NOTES TO EDITORS
Peace Programme
Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland will benefit from a seven-year €33 million PEACE programme made up of €225 million in additional funding from the European Union along with national contributions of €108 million. The EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland, 2007 – 2013 (the PEACE III Programme) is a distinctive European Union Structural Funds Programme aimed at reinforcing progress towards a peaceful and stable society and promoting reconciliation. It will assist Northern Ireland and the Border Region of Ireland and specifically focus on reconciling communities and contributing towards a shared society.
It will deliver these priorities through measures which will:
- Build positive relations at the local level
- Acknowledge the past
- Create shared public spaces
- Develop key institutional capacity for a shared society The programme carries forward key aspects of the previous PEACE Programmes (PEACE I and PEACE II) and has a continued and renewed emphasis on reconciliation.
The PEACE III Programme continues the earlier programme’s cross-border focus on Ireland, North and South. The purpose of the Creating Shared Public Space theme of the PEACE III programme is to tackle problems of separation of communities by creating genuine new shared space or transforming contested space.
The focus is on large scale infrastructural developments that expand opportunities for common use, interaction and engagement, and economic development. It is hoped that this opportunity to interact will affect change in behavioural patterns in relation to shopping, working and socialising. €82 million has been allocated to this theme.
Peace Bridge
The foot and cycle bridge will physically and symbolically unite both sides of the River Foyle and is conceived as two distinct structural systems that work in harmony, a pair of identical curved suspension structures, each allied to opposing banks, in a fluid “S” shaped alignment. At the middle of the river both structural systems tangibly overlap, boldly interacting to create a single unified crossing – a structural handshake across the Foyle and an embrace in the centre of the river.
The Peace Bridge will measure 235 metres and will have a gradient of 1/50. Designed for pedestrians and cyclists, the bridge will run from behind Guildhall Square on to the former Parade Ground in the former Ebrington Barracks.