John Benjamin MacNeill
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John Benjamin Macneill FRS |
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| Born | 1793 Dundalk, |
| Died | 2 March 1880 |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | civil engineer |
Sir John Benjamin Macneill FRS (1793 – 2 March 1880) was an eminent Irish civil engineer of the 19th century, closely associated with Thomas Telford. His most notable projects were railway schemes in Ireland.
He was born in Mountpleasant near the town of Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland.
Macneill started initially as a surveyor and was employed practically in laying out roads and other engineering works since 1816. His survey of the Boyne estuary became the basis of a report by Alexander Nimmo in 1826. During a trip to England in the 1820s he met engineer Thomas Telford who inspired him to become a civil engineer. Indeed, he became Telford’s chief assistant for 10 years, eventually succeeding Telford as chief engineer on the massive London–Holyhead road project. He developed Macneill's road indicator in the late 1820s, an instrument for ascertaining the force necessary to draw a carriage over different kinds of roads and pavements, and consequently, the actual condition of the road.
After Telford’s death in 1834 Macneill established his own consultancy, based in London and Glasgow, and turned his attention towards railways—his first projects were freight schemes in the Scottish coal and ironfields near Wishaw and Motherwell. He was also consulting engineer at Grangemouth Docks and for various Scottish canal projects.
During the late 1830s and early 1840s, Macneill focused on his native Ireland. He worked on various railway projects, including the Dublin and Drogheda Railway, including plans to extend the railway beyond Drogheda towards Portadown. Much of Ireland’s modern railway network still follows routes he proposed. For example, the Dublin-Belfast railway line follows the line of the Dublin and Drogheda Railway along the coast (Macneill was knighted in 1844 following its completion) and many of its impressive original structures remain (e.g., the 98-foot (30 m) high Boyne Viaduct built between 1851 and 1855 near Drogheda, the 18-arch, 126-foot (38 m) high Craigmore Viaduct near Bessbrook and the nearby MacNeill's Egyptian Arch).
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