Work starts next year on Cork’s €50m flood protection plan

With flood preventing works almost complete in Fermoy (see report below), the following is the situation in Cork City and other Cork county towns with their works timeline.

CORK CITY: Details of a €50m flood protection plan were announced at a special exhibition in City Hall last month.

Detailed design work is expected to start before the middle of 2015. A number of flood events have devastated the city centre since the November 2009 flood which followed the release of record levels of water from the EBS dam at Inniscarra.

Last February, the city centre was swamped after a combination of heavy rain and high tides. Plans include preventing major discharges from the dam, raised quay walls and embankments in the city centre, and on the smaller Curraheen and Glasheen rivers.

Some footbridges may be raised and floodgates could be installed on them and some boardwalks in the city centre.

The project will concentrate on engineering works from the Inniscarra dam and along the 10 miles of river leading into the city, along with further works at Blackpool and Ballyvolane. CLONAKILTY: Plans have been unveiled for a €7m flood prevention scheme which will hopefully prevent a repeat of June 28, 2012, when more than 100 businesses and houses were deluged.

Tidal defences will be erected around the Croppy Rd and up the River Feagle as far as the post office on Bridge St.

Wall defences will vary in height, but will be at least 1.1m tall and a storage area to hold water back will be built upstream of Dunnes Stores.

New pipes and pumping stations will also be installed around this area.

It’s hoped that construction will get under way by October 2015 and it is estimated it will take 18 months to complete. SKIBBEREEN: In April 2013 it was announced that the town will get €12.8m in flood defences designed to protect it for 200 years.

Preliminary work is starting and it will take 18 month to two years to complete.

The work will involve building 4.2km of embankments, 2.9km of walls, four new culverts and four pumping stations.

It is designed to protect 179 homes and 131 commercial properties.

The move was welcomed by the local flood committee which had lobbied for several years for the work to be carried out. DOUGLAS, GLANMIRE and RIVERSTICK: Contracts were signed last January for works in these three locations.

Douglas and Glanmire suffered millions of euro of damage in floods June 28, 2012.

The majority of damage in Douglas was done to the town’s businesses, while in Glanmire more than 60 houses and 20 businesses were swamped.

The main damage to Riverstick, near Kinsale, was caused by a flood of November 2009, although there has been minor flooding there since.

County engineer David Keane said he expects it will take an average of three years for each of the schemes to be completed.

Embankment protection will be built alongside the Douglas River and its tributaries, and the project may also include an early warning system.

In Glanmire, works are envisaged along the length of the River Glashaboy to protect properties in Sallybrook, Riverstown, and as far as the estuary’s head just north of Tivoli. Early warning systems are also likely to be incorporated.