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The Ards Peninsula in county Down extends about 30 km south of Newtownards, and ends close to the town of Portaferry. From here DFI Roads operates a car ferry which crosses 'The Narrows' for 1 km to the town of Strangford in Lecale. The car ferry, which forms part of the A2, is the only sea-going 'road' in Northern Ireland. The ferry provides an important link for commuters and school children attending school in Downpatrick and further afield, taking about half a million passengers per year. When the ferry is not operating, as often happens in fog or strong wind, the only alternative is a 76 km / 47 mile trip via Downpatrick, Comber and Newtownards which takes over an hour.

A ferry service has operated here since at least the time of the 16th century Elizabethan conquest of the area, and possibly further back (see this video). There have been proposals to bridge the Narrows for over a century. It was looked at in some detail in the 1960s but was not taken forward. The proposal has been brought forward again in recent years in light of the Irish government's "Shared Island" fund.

1. Length/size. The bridge would need to be a minimum of 550 metres long, over a relatively deep channel, which would make it a very significant structure, similar in length to Derry's Foyle Bridge but with the restriction that there could be no pillars further than a few dozen metres from shore on either side. This would make the central span very long.
   
2. Limited traffic. The Ards Peninsula (south of a line from Newtownards to Donaghadee) has a population of about 25,000 peoples, so the potential traffic level on the bridge is not very high. However, the Isle of Skye in Scotland was, in 1995, connected to the mainland by a bridge with a main span of about 300 metres despite having only about 10,000 residents, so the concept of a bridge serving a small population is not without precedent. It would be motivated by social factors rather than benefit/cost ratios.
   
3. Cost. A structure of this scale would be very expensive. It is very hard to give a figure, but the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge, Ireland's longest bridge, which opened in 2020, along with 15 km of new roads cost €230m / £190m. However, a bridge at The Narrows would require a much longer central span so a price tag closer to £300m seems reasonable. A small percentage of this cost would be offset by the ability to close the ferry, which costs DFI about £1.5m per year. If the bridge was tolled at the same level as the current ferry, the bridge would bring in about £1m per year, which is small compared to the construction cost that it probably would not be worth charging.
   

The narrowest point lies just south of Strangford where The Narrows has a width of 550 metres. The only broadly similar structure in Northern Ireland is Derry's Foyle Bridge. It crosses the River Foyle and has a total length of 866 metres but with a central span of 234 metres. One pier of Foyle Bridge is built at a depth of about 3 metres. If building piers at a depth of about 3 metres was possible at The Narrows, then it would reduce the central span to a length of about 450 metres. This is too long to be covered by a single arch like the Foyle Bridge and would therefore require a cable-stayed structure. If it is NOT possible to build piers in the water, perhaps due to the slope/geology of the sea bed, then the span would need to increase to 550 metres, which would require an even more elaborate cable-stayed structure. On the other hand, if it was possible to construct piers in deeper water then this would reduce the length of the central span needed. Due to the need to clear shipping in The Narrows, the bridge would need to be high enough to let vessels past.

The map below shows a possible location for the bridge, sited at the narrowest point along The Narrows. Also shown are about 1 km of new roads which would be needed to connect it to the existing road network, via new roundabouts. These approach roads would also need to be elevated as they approach the bridge to get the road up to the required height.

The diagram below shows a left-right cross section of The Narrows at the position shown above. Below that is a cross section of the route of the Foyle Bridge in Derry, for comparison. The grid is 100 metres per square left-to-right, and 10 metres per square depth. In the case of the Foyle Bridge, the actual position of the piers is shown, while indicative pier locations and design are shown at the Narrows. The bridge outlines are for illustration only and are not to scale. As you can see, a bridge at The Narrows would be much more challenging to engineer than the Foyle Bridge, despite the distance over water being relatively similar.

Updates

13 Nov 2024: Kevin Barry has set up a web site to try to garner more interest in the bridge. While it is highly unlikely that the Northern Ireland Executive could/would commit to a bridge here, it is possible that other sources of money, such as the Shared Island Fund, could be brought to bear.