Flood relief work alert

RESIDENTS and businesspeople in Clonmel are facing traffic disruption in the coming weeks with work set to be carried out on five bridges in the town.

Access to the Old Bridge area of Clonmel will be restricted as work on the flood relief scheme reaches the flood-prone district.

Preparatory work on the bridges, all in a flood-prone area, is taking place this month but the main job will start at the end of the year or early in 2011 and will involve traffic disruption.

However, Clonmel Borough Council will be providing a bus service to transport pedestrians from one side of the River Suir to the other while the work is going on, and local businesses will remain open.

Consulting engineers for the project, Mott McDonald Ireland, are working on protective walls on the town’s quays as part of the overall scheme which is aimed at preventing the sort of flooding which has devastated sections of Clonmel in the last decade and most recently last year.

The engineers are working on the second phase of the flood relief programme which involves protecting the north and east of Clonmel and includes storm water drains, the flood protection walls along the river and new embankments in the town centre and the outlying townlands of Kilgainey and Poulboy.

Old Bridge itself will be the first bridge to get an upgrade as part of the flood prevention scheme.

After Christmas work on the storm water drainage system will involve pipelines being laid on Davis Road, Parnell Street and Dillon Street and streets which connect with the quays.

A flood alert system for council officials and staff is almost complete.