West-Link, Toll bridge on M50 motorway in Dublin, Ireland.
West-Link is a pair of parallel concrete bridges carrying the M50 motorway over the River Liffey at the Strawberry Beds. Each span is 385 metres long and rises about 42 metres above the river. The deck is flat and grey, with thin vertical fins along its edge, and rests on four pale grey rectangular piers marked by fine vertical grooves and dark stains.
Plans for the bridge were announced in 1987 by Minister for the Environment Pádraig Flynn, with an expected cost of about £30 million. Built by NTR plc under a deal with Dublin County Council, it opened in 1990 as part of the first phase of the M50, the first section of toll motorway in the state. A second span opened in September 2003.
The Irish name Droichead an Nascbhóthair Thiar means "Bridge of the Western Link Road". The crossing is at the Strawberry Beds, a wooded stretch of the Liffey valley. Since 30 August 2008 tolls have been collected without barriers, by overhead gantries reading tags and number plates.
The crossing uses electronic tolling systems with overhead gantries that automatically read vehicle tags. Drivers without registered tags can pay after traveling by using online platforms or other payment methods.
The bridge crosses the Liffey at a spot called the Strawberry Beds, and it is the only Liffey crossing between Chapelizod and Lucan Bridge, both narrow two-lane structures. In 2005 it carried an average of 98,000 vehicles a day.
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