A proposal to build a cross-border bridge linking Warrenpoint and Omeath at a cost of £500,000 was considered half a century ago.
Newly released files show officials did not believe that the £200,000 funding required from Northern Ireland would be made available for the proposed link in 1975.
Earlier this year, it was confirmed that, after decades of speculation, work had begun on the Narrow Water Bridge between Co Down and Co Louth, with the Irish Government providing more than 100 million euros towards the project.
However, the files show that the Department of the Environment had prepared a report in response to a proposal from Louth County Council for a bridge almost 50 years before.
The file is called “Schemes for new roads and bridges across the Northern Ireland/Eire border.”
It includes a map showing the area of the proposed bridge.
A covering letter says “the estimated cost to N Ireland is £200,000”.
It adds: “Fifteen hundred vehicles per day as the maximum summer usage is probably a reasonable estimate.
“The winter usage could exceed the 250 stated and would probably be around 1,000 especially if a high percentage of the Carlingford Omeath traffic used the crossing to take advantage of the dual carriageway to Newry.
It is a proposal which is most attractive from a tourist point of view and is worthy of further consideration in the future
“Traffic on the existing Newry to Omeath road would probably drop on the length from Narrow Water to Newry.
“At present I cannot see money being available for this work.
“It is a proposal which is most attractive from a tourist point of view and is worthy of further consideration in the future.”
A more detailed report in the file says the overall likely cost of the bridge would be approximately £500,000.
It says the proposed site is “the most southerly location clear of the Warrenpoint harbour and industrial sites”.
Regarding the tourist potential of the proposed project, the report says: “There might be little Northern usage of such a link since the main car trip passes through Newry in any case.
“Only a small percentage of the Mourne tourist trip is ’round Ireland’ and of that only a proportion might wish to use the bridge in preference to bypassing the scenery Warrenpoint/Newry/Omeath which is itself as unique as much of the traditional Mourne circuit.
“Perhaps 200 trips per day summer.
“In all perhaps the maximum daily number usage might be in the order of about 1000-1500 with this falling to less than 250 in the winter.”
The report concludes: “The likely usage appears to be too low to justify participation in such inessential expenditure, especially in the current financial scene and the competing work of infinitely greater necessity in Newry.
“If Louth County Council wish to pursue the idea of a Omeath/Warrenpoint link, perhaps they should examine the possibility of introducing a car ferry.
“The Northern contribution to such a venture could perhaps be the provision of a slipway at Warrenpoint – commercial risk and profits (if any) to Louth County Council.”
