Group suggests cheaper tide wall for Cork

Campaigners opposed to Cork’s €140m flood defence plan say a tidal barrier is a viable option after costing a cheaper version at a different location.

Action group Save Cork City also claimed to have identified inconsistencies in OPW figures which have been used to rule out the construction of a tidal barrage in the harbour on cost grounds.

The OPW said earlier this month that building direct defences and raising quay walls is the only viable option to tackle tidal and fluvial flooding in Cork city.

It ruled out a tidal barrage on cost grounds, saying it could cost up to €1bn — the State’s entire flood defence budget for the next decade — and a price tag way beyond the current value of benefits of the flood defence scheme, which is under €200m. It said building such a structure would tackle tidal flooding only, and would do nothing to prevent fluvial flooding.

However, Save Cork City said it has identified an alternative location for a tidal barrier at Great Island and has costed it at €190m. It outlined its case at a behind-closed-doors meeting with Cork City Council yesterday.

Campaign spokeswoman Polly Magee said the OPW accepted a “high-level study” which put the cost of a tidal barrage in Cork at €900m to €1bn is actually based on the cost of a similar structure in Rotterdam.

She said the OPW’s study is not specifically measured or costed for Cork.

“It’s based on a barrier for one of the busiest harbours and shipping lanes in the world,” she said.

“Cork has absolutely no need for a barrier like the one in Rotterdam. These are a number of viable locations to construct tidal barriers on the Lee and they will not cost €1bn.”

UCC climate expert Robert Devoy also questioned the OPW’s flood defence plan. He said that while current projections show a mean global sea-level rise of 50cm to 1m by 2100, this is recognised to be a conservative figure, with the real rise expected to be 2m-6m by 2100. A tidal barrier east of Cork city would help mitigate the rise of storm surges when sea levels are higher, he said.

However, the National Flood Forum spokesman, Blackpool businessman Jer Buckley, described the tidal barrage proposal as a “crackpot suggestion”.

The council members signed off last night on its submission to the OPW on the flood defence plan, despite objections from Workers Party councillor Ted Tynan and Anti Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit Fiona Ryan.

The OPW is still accepting submissions from the public on the plan until April 7. It has received more than 230 submissions to date.