Irish Water will be replacing almost 3km of old and damaged water mains in Galway City over the next three months.
These works will involve involve decommissioning approximately 1.2km of water mains in Mervue, and a further 1.6km of pipes along the Tuam Road, and replacing them with high density polyethelene.
Work is expected to begin on this project in late January under Farrans Construction Limited, and take roughly three months to complete.
The works are part of Irish Water’s National Leaks Reduction Programme, which aims to cut down on massive water wastage by replacing and upgrading old infrastructure.
As well as saving money for the agency with less maintenance work, it’s also intended that this will ensure a more reliable water supply for city residents in the future.
Irish Water’s Leakage Reduction Programme Regional Lead Dave Murphy said that they are committed to safeguarding Galway City’s water supply.
“These works will involve the decommissioning and replacement of water mains along St James Road from Bayview Heights on to Quinn Terrace and along the N83 in the vicinity of the Ballybrit Industrial Estate to Bothar na Mine.
“The works will also involve laying new water service connections from the public water main in the road to customers’ property boundaries and connecting it to the customer’s water supply.
“Where the existing service connections on the public side are lead these will be replaced as part of this improvement work,” Dave Murphy added.
These works may involve shutting off the local water supply on several occasions, and Irish Water has said that it will endeavour to inform affected residents 48 hours before any shut off takes place.
Traffic management may be in place during this time which may involve local diversions. Local and emergency traffic will be maintained at all times.
Irish Water intends to invest €5.5 billion in drinking and waste water infrastructure nationwide as part of its business plan up to 2021, which includes €512 million under the National Leaks Reduction Programme.
