Ballinascarty flood alleviation works deferred until new year

Plans to carry out major road upgrading and flood alleviation works in the ancestral home of Henry Ford have been put off until after Christmas.

The work was scheduled to start in the village of Ballinascarty, Co Cork, in the next few days, but National Roads Authority (NRA) engineers have since decided they don’t want to disrupt pre-Christmas trade as it would entail potentially lengthy traffic delays on the N71.

The road around the village has been damaged by a number of floods in recent years, as have adjoining properties which suffered again from a deluge which put a number areas of Cork under several feet of water on June 28, 2012.

According to Cllr Noel O’Donovan (FG) agreement was recently reached between the NRA and Cork County Council to carry out flood alleviation works in the village in tandem with the road upgrade.

New, larger culverts are to be put under the road which will increase the capacity flow on the local river by 60%. It’s envisaged that this will prevent a future back-up of water under the bridge which has previously resulted in nearby properties being flooded.

In the meantime, the Office of Public Works (OPW) has carried out a number of measures downstream to allow water to escape more quickly from the village centre. This work has included clearing channels and cutting down trees which were overhanging the river.

Meanwhile, councillors have been handed an action plan for flood alleviation works in the Manch Bridge area, which is a few miles east of Dunmanway. A number of houses in this area also fell victim to the June 2012 downpour.

Engineers have pointed out that bridges in the area are too low and result in water backing up when there’s significant rainfall pouring into local streams.

Council engineers were unable to given Cllr Declan Hurley (Ind) a start-up date for work in the area.

They say that they will first have to enter consultations with local landowners and the OPW.