Bandon Flood Relief Scheme

Bandon Town has a long history of serious flooding. Flooding is primarily due to heavy rainfall in the catchment of the Bandon River and of its tributary, the Bridewell River, which joins the Bandon River immediately downstream of Bandon Bridge. It can be exacerbated by high tides in the Bandon River estuary, approximately 6km to the east of the town. Since the previous highest recorded flood in 1975, serious flooding has occurred in the town in 1978, 1982, 1986, 1988 and November 2009. Minor flooding in the past decade has occurred in 2004, 2005, 2006 and January 2011.

The management of flood risk at present consists of a Flood Early Warning System, operated by Cork County Council, which was installed in early 2011 and an associated Flood Emergency Response Plan. The Flood Early Warning System operates by monitoring river levels at three gauging stations located at Longbridge, Bealaboy and Bandon and issuing text alerts to designated people depending on the level of the river and the associated colour of the alert – yellow (low), yellow (high), orange and red. The level of the alert will determine the resulting actions by the people contacted ultimately resulting in the implementation of the Flood Emergency Response Plan.

Following the 2009 flooding, Cork County Council produced a scoping report, which was submitted to OPW, after which a decision was made to undertake a Study with a view to developing a flood relief scheme for the town. Consultants were appointed in late 2010 to undertake the development of the scheme and a Scheme was subsequently brought forward to Public Exhibition, under the Arterial Drainage Acts in June 2012.

The Scheme received Ministerial Confirmation in April, 2016 and the main contractor for the scheme, Wills Bros Ltd, commenced construction works on site in July, 2016.

It is expected that the Scheme will be substantially completed in early 2019.

The Scheme mainly includes the following:

• new walls and embankments
• excavating the channel by approximately 1.6m for a distance of 3.5kms
• replacement of the pedestrian bridge
• underpinning of Bandon Bridge
• construction of a rock ramp for fish passage
• associated drainage works including new pump stations

The Scheme, when completed, will protect approximately 260 properties currently at risk of flooding.

Design Team

Byrne Looby Partners

Environmental Consultants

Ryan Hanley Ltd

Main Contractor

Wills Bros Ltd

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).