Budget for Ennis flood relief doubles to almost €20m

Office of Public Works acknowledge that the rise in costs were as a result of 'unexpectedly' poor ground conditions

A waterfall created by the flooding at the outer wall of St Flannans College, Ennis, Co Clare. Picture:  Eamon Ward

The Office Of Public Works (OPW) has acknowledged that the budget for a new flood control scheme in Co Clare has nearly doubled to close to €20mn due to ‘unexpectedly’ poor ground conditions.

Meanwhile, no response was given by the OPW to a question by Fianna Fáil’s Marc MacSharry about similar cost overruns for flood control works at Midleton.

The Ennis south flood management scheme, first tendered for in 2017, began construction in February of last year. 

However, in June 2019 two separate ground slippages occurred on existing embankments in the Clareabbey area of the River Fergus, the OPW said, which revealed “ground conditions were considerably worse than expected”.

The discovery had seen the budget jump from €10.8m, VAT-inclusive, in 2018, to €19.7m, the agency said in response to questions raised by Mr MacSharry at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The hike had resulted from a “more expensive solution” being applied by the contractors, Galway-based Ward and Burke Construction, which would see a “combination of differing types of sheet piling, incurring an additional construction cost of approximately €8.7 million”, the OPW said.

The Ennis South scheme is expected to afford flood protection to more than 120 homes and five commercial properties when completed, together with St Flannan’s College, Ennis.

Separately, a question asked by Mr MacSharry regarding the Midleton scheme has, as yet, received no response from the OPW.

The Fianna Fail TD had noted at the OPW’s appearance at PAC on November 11 that the Midleton estimate had doubled from €20mn to €40m in a year, a figure Mr MacSharry said could be expected to increase further due to the “usual cost of inflation”.