Howth Looped paths are a series of cliff top off-road gravel trails, around the Howth Peninsula, which currently serve as a local amenity and tourist attraction. Due to their informal and historic nature, the trails have been not been maintained at the scale necessary for the current visitors. Design ID were appointed as the Client Engineer, PSDP and Employers Representative through to construction for the design and upgrade of the trails, around 30% of which occur in woodland areas.
At the onset of the project, we were tasked with inspecting over 6km of cliff face paths, boardwalks and steps with various defects apparent, being caused predominantly by either water or people.
We worked closely with Ecological subconsultant and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to protect the Howth Head SAC & Howth Head Coast SPA, seeking to safeguard the heath habitat and kittiwake bird population. We recommended the optimal solution in review of design robustness, construction feasibility, environmental risk as week as cost and programme.
Client: Fingal County Council
