Locals steeled for unique Dublin Port ball installation

DUBLIN Port Company has unveiled a four tonne stainless steel ball as part of a new project to open up Port Centre. 

It is inspired by the Time Ball which originally stood on Westmoreland Street. 

Each day the Time Ball dropped on the top of the Ballast Office at O’Connell Bridge to signal Greenwich Mean Time to ships in port. 

From the podium, visitors will also be able to observe the port’s operations from a safe distance, as intended by the original architects.

Darmody Architecture conceived the installation as part of Dublin Port Company’s development to open up the Port Centre and create a new public realm. The installation will go on display to the public when the project to open up the Port Centre is completed in the autumn.

Enabling works to prepare the site at Port Centre are ongoing with Wills Bros Civil Engineering carrying out the development. 

The works involve removing a section of the existing old boundary wall to create new pedestrian entry points at Alexandra Road and East Wall Road, identifiable by tall russet coloured structures made from Corten steel, the same material that is used in shipping containers.  

Moving south of Port Centre, visitors will discover a landscaped maritime garden with distributed seating, accessible from a new footbridge that will connect relocated car park facilities. 

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‘The Drop’ will feature in the garden.  

The scheme also integrates with Dublin Port’s future plans for a new internal road network, cycle and pathways. 

Approved by Dublin City Council and scheduled for development, the three-kilometre route will give pedestrians and cyclists access to the port estate for recreational use for the first time, and includes a perimeter route with vantage points overlooking the Tolka Estuary.

The project, which was announced last November, is designed to soften the Port’s boundaries into the city and provide a public realm at Port Centre for the first time in 35 years. 

This is the largest physical intervention by Dublin Port to reintegrate the port with the city, as committed to in the company’s Masterplan.

Separately, Dublin Port Company has published its latest trade figures showing half-year growth of 2.9 per cent, putting it on track for a third successive record year. 

Overall, volumes in Dublin Port have grown by 28.8 per cent. Growth was driven by exports which were up by 4.4 per cent with imports ahead by 1.9 per cent. 

The first half included the busiest ever month in the history of Dublin Port with 3.2 million gross tonnes of goods passing through the port in May.