Skibbereen Flood Defence Scheme

Skibbereen has a long history of flooding with the most severe events occurring in 1986 and November 2009. Less severe events occurred in 1969, 1974, 1975, 1982, December 2009, 2012 and 2013. Flooding events also occurred in the 40s and 50s but little data is available for those events.

Over 200 properties were reported to be flooded by the event which occurred in November 2009. Flooding occurs from the River Ilen, Showgrounds Stream, Caol Stream, Assolas Stream, Lurriga Drain and the Glencurragh Stream.

Following the 2009 event, the then Minister of State at OPW, Dr Martin Mansergh TD, visited the town and indicated that OPW would undertake a Feasibility Study into the problem. After a procurement process in 2010, RPS were appointed in February 2011 by Cork County Council to undertake the Study with funding from OPW. This has since been extended to full scheme status and a Steering Group was established with officials from OPW and Cork County Council and consultants RPS.

The emerging scheme was presented to the public in a Public Information Day held in January 2012 and has since been refined. The Council initially intended to bring the Scheme forward under their powers under the planning process but it was later decided to advance the Scheme under the Arterial Drainage Acts with Cork County Council acting as Agents for OPW.

A total of sixteen different options were assessed during the course of the Study, all of which were appraised under a Multi-Criteria Analysis Matrix, the same as is used for the CFRAM process, and the preferred scheme is the one which scored the highest in the analysis. The Scheme is mainly a hard defence scheme with some overpumping and includes the following:

• construction of new walls
• construction of earthen embankments
• replacement of old culverts and construction of new culverts
• some regrading works at John J Kennedy Bridge
• construction of Surface Water Pump Stations
• associated drainage works

The Scheme, launched by Minister of State, Brian Hayes, T.D., was formally placed on Public Exhibition from 11 April, 2013 until 10 May, 2013. All observations received were considered before decisions were made on how best to progress the scheme. These measures received Ministerial Confirmation in January, 2016. The construction stage formally commenced in June, 2016 and is due to be completed by Jons Civil Engineering Ltd in early 2019.

Design Team RPS Consulting Engineers

Environmental Team RPS, DixonBrosnan and Associates, John Cronin & Associates

Main Contractor Jons Civil Engineering Ltd

Public Exhibition Stage Documentation.