Greenway pedestrian and cycle bridges from repurposed wind turbine blades

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dc.contributor.authorLeahy, Paul G.
dc.contributor.authorZhang, Zoe
dc.contributor.authorNagle, Angela J.
dc.contributor.authorRuane, Kieran
dc.contributor.authorDelaney, Emma
dc.contributor.authorMcKinley, Jennifer
dc.contributor.authorBank, Lawrence
dc.contributor.authorGentry, T. Russell
dc.contributor.funderDepartment for the Economyen
dc.contributor.funderScience Foundation Irelanden
dc.contributor.funderNational Science Foundationen
dc.contributor.funderMunster Technological Universityen
dc.date.accessioned2021-12-20T15:33:12Z
dc.date.available2021-12-20T15:33:12Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.date.updated2021-12-16T13:57:52Z
dc.description.abstractGreenways are long-distance walking and cycling routes, often developed along the routes of disused railways. Greenways therefore are a means of repurposing underused infrastructure to provide sustainable transport. They also offer benefits for leisure activities, rural development and tourism. The network of greenways in the Republic of Ireland is projected to grow to 240 km by 2022, and a further 800 km of long-distance pathways has been proposed. The Irish government announced â ¬64m in funding for greenway projects in 2020, with further commitments to sustainable transport spending in the 2020 Programme for Government. In Northern Ireland there is 1,000 km of abandoned former transport routes with the potential for development as greenways. Many of the proposed greenway routes will need extensive works. In many cases, bridges and overpasses are in poor condition and will require complete reconstruction. Alongside the repurposing of disused railways as sustainable transport routes, there is an opportunity to reuse another type of repurposed infrastructure to create functional and attractive new bridges on greenways: end-of-life decommissioned wind turbine blades. Wind turbine blades are made of durable, lightweight and strong fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials. They are difficult to recycle by conventional methods, but are ideally suited to repurposing. A US-Ireland-Northern Ireland initiative, the Re-Wind network, has created designs for several new artefacts from repurposed wind turbine blades, including a pedestrian bridge. In this paper we will show the advantages of the blade bridge design for deployment on greenways, show details of the testing and design of the worldâ s first repurposed greenway blade bridge, scheduled for installation on the Midleton-Youghal Greenway in Co. Cork in 2021, and outline the environmental and social advantages of using repurposed FRP blades in new infrastructure such as bridges. The paper also discusses the future expected flow of end-of-life blades from decommissioned wind turbines in Ireland and how this can be aligned with repurposing opportunities.en
dc.description.sponsorshipInvestNI/Department for the Economy (Grant USI-116); Science Foundation Ireland (Grant 16/US/3334); National Science Foundation (Grants numbers: 1701413; 1701694)en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleidID-22en
dc.identifier.citationLeahy, P. G., Zhang, Z., Nagle, A. J., Ruane, K., Delaney, E., McKinley, J., Bank, L. and Gentry, T. R. (2021) 'Greenway pedestrian and cycle bridges from repurposed wind turbine blades', Proceedings of ITRN 2021, University of Limerick, 26-27 August, ID-22 (8pp).en
dc.identifier.endpage8en
dc.identifier.startpage1en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/12363
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherIrish Transport Research Network (ITRN)en
dc.relation.ispartofProceedings of ITRN 2021, University of Limerick, 26-27 August
dc.relation.urihttp://itrn.ie/itrn2021-proceedings
dc.rights© 2021, Irish Transport Research Network (ITRN).en
dc.subjectCircular economyen
dc.subjectRepurposed infrastructureen
dc.subjectSustainable transporten
dc.subjectComposite materialsen
dc.titleGreenway pedestrian and cycle bridges from repurposed wind turbine bladesen
dc.typeConference itemen
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