Cork's flood-damaged roads 'will take well into next year' to repair
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Engineers have already identified €50m of damage to roads in Co. Cork caused by Storm Babet and the final bill is likely to be far higher as assessments continue.
A number of bridges across the county are also awaiting assessment after being badly damaged by fast-moving rivers.
Half the road damage occurred in East Cork, with parts of North Cork and the greater Carrigaline area also impacted.
The council must build new reinforced riverside walls around some housing estates in Midleton which were torn away by flooding.
Dave Clarke, the council’s senior roads engineer for East Cork, said the damage is so severe and widespread that some of the repairs “will take well into next year to complete.”
He told a meeting of the East Cork Municipal District Council it would take a few weeks before he could provide councillors with a full list of the damage, such was the scale of it.
The council is “triaging” repairs so that certain projects will have to get priority.
Fine Gael councillor Michael Hegarty said the cost of the damage will rise as more detailed examinations are carried out by council engineers.
Once the final cost is known, the local authority will seek government aid to cover it.
As the clean-up continues in the hardest hit areas of East Cork, such as Midleton, Inch, Whitegate and Mogeely, councillors have decided to write to energy companies asking them to provide discounts to people who will be using dehumidifiers to dry out their properties.
It's also emerged that the opening of a section of the greenway from Midleton to Mogeely will not go ahead this year as planned due to the flooding.
Mr Hegarty said the OPW must ensure the estuary at Ballinacurra, near Midleton, is dredged as it’s silted up to such an extent that some nearby houses had sea water pouring up through their floors.
Mr Clarke said he’d relay this concern to the OPW to see if it can be included in the town’s flood defence scheme.
The council will also seek funding to clean a river in North Cork which is so clogged with silt and debris it’s increasingly flooding homes in Ballyhea and Churchtown.
The River Awbeg burst its banks again during Storm Babet, leaving several people trapped in their properties, including a woman in her 80s, who was unable to get out of her house for two weeks.
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