Whitebridge Underpinning and Scour Protection
Following large scale flooding across the east of Ireland, Wicklow County Council called in Norfolk Marine Ltd to carry out an underwater inspection of the road bridge at Whitebridge on the Avoca River.
The inspection was to establish if the flood waters had damaged the bridge as water level had risen to by over 4m at the site causing damage to local properties and reaching the underside of the bridge deck.
A full underwater survey was carried out from Norfolk Marine’s mobile dive spread and a report prepared for the County Councils Chef Engineer. The survey revealed that the West Pier supporting the bridge had been under scoured and nearly 50% of its footprint was unsupported. The East Pier and both abutments were found to be in good condition with no under scour present. Although the bridge structure showed no signs of stress follow up inspections showed the under scour of the west pier was getting worse.