Damage caused by partial building collapse on Cork street worse than initially thought

Derelict building facade is pinned in position behind hoarding on North Main Street, Cork.

The damage caused by a partial collapse of derelict buildings on the historic spine of Cork city just over a year ago is worse than expected, it has emerged.

A number of internal walls between two of the buildings on North Main Street have had to be demolished on safety grounds, Cork City Council has confirmed.

It could take another month to fully stabilise the structures before two sets of external A-frame supports can be internalised to free up the public footpath.

The details emerged as contractors engaged by Cork City Council continue to work on the buildings at 62 to 64 North Main St.

The cost of the work is expected to run to tens of thousands of euro. 

The council has insisted that while it ordered and is overseeing the work, the cost of the work will be levied on the owners of the buildings.

The affected buildings, which are all listed on the city council’s derelict sites register, suffered a partial collapse in June 2019.

The facade of one of the buildings was subsequently propped up by a large steel A-frame. 

The supports were sealed off with hoarding, which resulted in the closure of a section of footpath.

As the issue dragged on last year with little or no progress, litter built up behind the hoarding and sections of the hoarding fell down.

City officials faced criticism over the ongoing situation but insisted they were pursuing every legislative avenue available to hold the building owners accountable.

The issue came to a head last February when the owners were given a month to remove the support beams and free up the footpath.

And while Covid-19 disrupted the process, City Hall moved last month to step in to resolve the situation itself.

Derelict building facade is pinned in position behind hoarding on North Main Street, Cork.

The decision by the city to physically intervene follows extensive contacts with the owners of the buildings, and their engineering and legal representatives, which yielded little action to resolve the situation.

Contractors engaged by the council moved on site last month, and discovered that rubble caused by the partial collapse to the rear of number 63 had caused extensive damage to the internal walls between numbers 63 and 64.

An A-frame support structure was attached to the outside of number 64 to ensure the safety of the overall structure pending an engineering decision.

It resulted in the removal of the internal walls, with the rubble being removed by hand given the constraints of the site.

A spokesman for City Hall said once the buildings are stabilised to their satisfaction, and the support structures are internalised, officials will do everything in their power to ensure that the buildings are brought back into productive use.

New policies for a more aggressive approach to tackling dereliction in Cork city were agreed late last year.

Houses which have been on the council’s derelict sites register for two or more years without a transfer of ownership or commencement of works to remove dereliction will be considered for compulsory acquisition.

And all sites that have been on the register for two or more years where no material action has been taken - no renovations, no sale, no planning application - will also be considered for compulsory acquisition.