Fears Cork City will be ‘large storm drain’ following OPW plans

An architect involved in a campaign against proposals to alter quay walls in Cork to tackle flooding believes the OPW plans will turn the city centre into a “large storm drain”.

Polly Magee said she believes the Lower Lee Flood Relief Proposals will change Cork City forever and have a huge impact on inhabitants.

“The intention to protect and maintain the city into the future is vital and vulnerable householders and businesses must be prioritised,” said Ms Magee, of Magee Creedon Architects

“However, the works proposed by the OPW include building new walls around all the quays, a programme of work which will cost over €120m, its largest-ever budget, and take six to 10 years to complete.

“The proposed upstream works may actually increase the flood risk to the city in the process,” she warned.

“There will be massive inconvenience and disruption for those working, living in, and visiting the city and the end result will be a disconnection of the historic relationship between the city and the river.

“Effectively the city centre is to be turned into a large storm drain,” she said.

Ms Magee said the OPW’s proposed engineering solution “is all about building walls”.

“Access points to the waterways will be blocked off, all antique stone quay walls and railings, and many mature trees will be discarded and replaced.

"River views will be reduced or lost altogether and the impact on Architectural Conservation Areas and protected structures along the quays will be significant,” she claimed.

“The entire quay frontage will become homogenised. This is not how our lovely city, with all its layers of history, should be treated.

“Our historic centre is an invaluable asset in attracting tourism and investment and must be protected.”

Furthermore, Ms Magee believes upstream measures to reduce flood plains west of the city will only send the problem downriver, requiring a further raising of the quay walls in future.

“Minimal, if any, investigation appears to have been carried out into the diverting of flood waters upstream through open storm drainage or by use of a wetland system and woodland buffers.

"Further consultation is required as we believe a more considered, holistic and possibly simpler solution can be found to the river flooding issue, with more suitable interventions to a historic city environment using good design.

“A multidisciplinary design team, not just engineers, is essential to ensure a rigorous and integrated analysis of the issue is implemented for the best possible design option.

“The tidal flood risk is a much bigger issue, affecting larger areas, and will only increase with global warming.”

She said a barrage to the east of the city would be an expensive but more sustainable long-term investment which would give the city confidence to invest and encourage development.

“A barrage would protect not only the city centre and its cultural heritage but also areas such as the Docklands, Tivoli, the Marina, and Blackrock. It would avoid the extensive wall building around the city centre with the hidden costs to trade and tourism of continued building works and traffic disruption over a 10-year period and long term damage to the cityscape,” she said.

Ms Magee appealed to those concerned to avail of the public consultation by emailing their thoughts to [e-mail] before a February 17 deadline.

A Save Cork City campaign page can be found onfacebook.com/savecorkcity.