€12m project to protect Cork city suburbs from flooding

Defensive walls, river channel widening and deepening, new bridges and culverts will form part of a €12m project planned for flood defences in two Cork suburbs.

Details of the preferred options for the flood prevention schemes in Douglas and Togher were unveiled to the public yesterday by engineers from the county council, OPW and consultants Arup.

In Douglas, defence walls will be built on the southern side of the Tramore river at Douglas Mills. The river will be deepened and widened in certain areas and the existing culvert at Church Road is to be replaced.

Defence walls will be built in Ravendsale and the Lower Ravensdale Bridge will be replaced. The existing ‘trash screen’ will be replaced at Ballybrack Woods and at Donnybrook Commercial Centre work will be undertaken on the river channel to improve flow, and existing culverts and trash screens will be upgraded.

A new, reinforced concrete culvert will be used in Togher to carry the Tramore river from Lehenaghmore Industrial Estate to Greenwood Estate and river channel widening will take place downstream of the culvert.

A new culvert inlet will be also be created at Lehenaghmore Industrial Estate.

County council senior engineer Eoghan O’Brien said it was hoped to apply for planning permission to Bord Pleanála early next month. He said that a contractor should start work next spring and the project will take about 18 months.

“The detailed design will be done post-An Bord Pleanála approval. We will deal with observations and concerns the public may have through the process and the quicker we get them the quicker they’ll be addressed. Most issues raised to date will be addressed and nothing has sprung up to date which is a showstopper,” Mr O’Brien said.

Clayton Love junior, whose family own the Shipton Group which runs Douglas Village Shopping Centre, said he welcomed the plans.

“I hope the work is done as soon as possible. We had up to four feet of water in the shopping centre following the June 2012 flood. We got a number of the shops back up and running within 10 days.”

Sinn Féin councillor Eoghan Jeffers said that he was delighted to see the project reaching fruition.

Fine Gael councillor Deirdre Forde said that there will be some discomfort for some householders and shopkeepers during construction. “But I’m sure they’ll all sleep a lot happier in their beds when this is done,” she said.