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Gardens bridge to be widened
Botanic Gardens users will soon see changes taking place
to the arched bridge which leads into the gardens from
the Armagh car park. The concrete structure is too narrow for the number of
people who use it — more than 400,000 people pass over
it each year — and the balustrade, with its horizontal
wires, does not meet current safety standards. “A lot of families like to stop and look at the fish or
ducks,” says Council
landscape architect Dennis
Preston. “The way it is now
you can’t pass a wheelchair
and a pushchair and the
grade is too steep for some
people.” The bridge will be closed
when work starts this
month. Alternative access
to the gardens from the car
park will be provided during
the work period. The new structure will
“clip” on top of the existing
bridge. It will have a more
gentle slope, a new vertical
balustrade system and will
be twice as wide as the old
bridge. |