Galway City Council has defended the decision to carry out extensive roadworks between Bohermore and Eyre Square throughout August.
Roadworks taking place in the Bohermore/Prospect Hill from next week into early September will involve rolling lane closures to facilitate the works.
Lanes will be closed in 100m stretches between 10am and 4pm daily to allow Irish Water to lay new watermains in the area.
The works in this area are scheduled to commence on the August 6 with a week of trial holing followed by open cut excavations commencing on August 12 at St. Anthony’s Terrace.
Over the following weeks the work will progress towards Eyre Square until September 6, when the project is currently scheduled to finish.
Concerns were expressed by a number of elected councillors including Mayor Mike Cubbard about the impact this could have on traffic in tourist season, but the council executive has defended its choice as the right one.
The city council said that a number of other options for the roadworks were considered, but ultimately deemed unfeasible.
Working at night between 7pm and 1am was ruled out due to the noise disruption to people trying to sleep.
Another potential option was weekend work, but that would have required work beyond the timeframe allowed by the contract, and taken considerably longer to complete.
The city council acknowledged that these roadworks will cause traffic disruptions, but added that “this window after Race Week and before the schools and colleges return is the least disruptive time to carry out the works.”
The council said that the first week of lane closures will be to carry out trial holes and the council will be monitoring their impact on traffic and will consider other options if it proves necessary.
“The traffic on the open lane will be managed by means of a manually operated stop\go system to ensure priority is given on the busiest approach,” a council spokesperson said.
“A designated public liaison person has been appointed by the contractor for the duration of the project to deal with any customer queries and concerns.”
“Some works may also take place at weekends particularly at junctions to minimise disruption due to the requirements of An Gardaà Siochana or the City Council’s Transport department.”
“Night works were considered as an alternative to the day time rolling lane closures but due to the presence of the rock in the area and the disruption this would cause in a residential part of the city, was ruled out as an option.”
Shareridge Ltd, working on behalf of Irish Water, may also have to carry out temporary water shut offs to homes and businesses in the area during these works to enable the laying of new connections.
In total over 2,000 existing service connections will be replaced as the new water mains are being laid.
According to the council, these new mains are necessary to cut down on a massive amount of water being lost through leaks in the Bohermore area.
Almost 750,000 litres of water is being lost to leaks every day in the Bohermore/Prospect Hill area it’s claimed, the equivalent of two Leisureland swimming pools every day.
The dedicated Public Liaison Contact person for the work programme is Ethan Kane from Shareridge Ltd who can be contacted at (086) 7787888
