The Irish Times

Engineers at University College Dublin are helping to assess the weight-carrying capacities of some of the State's oldest masonry bridges. The Republic's highways and byways are dotted with hundreds of graceful old masonry bridges. Many were built in the 1700s and, while they look attractive, road engineers would like to know whether these old structures can handle today's heavy traffic loads. Masonry bridges have been built and used for thousands of years but, surprisingly, engineers have difficulty deciding exactly how much these bridges can carry, explains Dr Paul Fanning, of the Department of Civil Engineering at University College Dublin. Fanning heads a research project to make masonry bridge performance more predictable.