Above; ‘The Metal Bridge’ and railway line, one of Alfred Price’s lasting legacies. Circa; 1885-90. (Photograph courtesy of the ‘Lawrence Collection’). Alfred Dickinson Price, son of James Price, was born in Wicklow on the 16th of September 1857. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1878. From 1876, while he was still at Trinity, he assisted his father with work for the Midland Great Western Railway and with parliamentary plans for the Donegal Railway line. He then worked for William Traill on geological surveys, plans for drainage, waterworks and parliamentary surveys. In 1881 he was appointed resident engineer under Kennett Bayley for the Killorglin branch of the Great Southern and Western Railway. From February 1886 until June 1887 he had the post of resident engineer of the Giant’s Causeway railway extension in Co. Antrim, which included the construction of a viaduct over the River Bush. From 1887 until July 1889 he was district engineer under the Chief Hydraulic Engineer for Ireland, John George Gamble, engaging in field work and surveys for parliamentary plans and clearance works on the River Barrow. During the next sixteen months or so he made railway surveys for James Barton, James Otway and others. Price also reported to the government on routes for light railways for the development of underpopulated districts in Ireland and was resident engineer for the River Suck drainage scheme. Price was posted back to Co. Kerry on his appointment as resident engineer for the Great Southern and Western Railway’s Killorglin to Valencia extension, which included the Gleensk and Valencia viaducts and a new wharf in the Valencia estuary. He returned to Dublin in 1894. On 30 January 1897 he was elected engineer to Bray Township commissioners. He was also engineer to Blackrock Urban District Council before his appointment as Engineering Inspector of the Local Government Board in 1900. Alfred Price retired in 1922 or 1923. Price died in 1934. He was an active sportsman and was awarded a certificate from the Royal Humane Society for rescuing a boy from drowning. According to the 1911 census, he had married Henrietta, daughter of George Berford Fairbrother of Clonsilla Lodge, Co. Dublin, circa 1882 and had at least one son.
