Flood defence walls for Laois Offaly town set to be delayed by years

Investigations are ongoing into the construction of walls and other flood defences in Portarlington which should have been built to protect the town by the end of 2024.

Surveys, reports and designs have also yet to be completed more than seven years after flooding led to political promises that the town would finally get permanent protection.

The incoming minister Kevin Boxer Moran promised Portarlington and Mountmellick would get protection after both towns were hit by flooding in late 2017.

A project team contracted in 2020 to deliver a Portarlington plan but its work has fallen behind its own self-published timelines for the delivery of protection for a town that is at flood risk. Portarlington is flood prone due to the River Barrow flowing through the low-lying town.

Experts have been appointed and investigations and planning is underway but the engineering firms contracted by Laois County Council and overseen by the Office of Public Works (OPW) have yet to complete their assessments as to how to protect the fast-growing Laois Offaly town.

A dedicated OPW website provides the latest information on what work lined up for the start of this year. It confirms that survey work is not complete.

"Personnel from Ground Investigations Ireland working on behalf of Laois County Council for the Portarlington Flood Relief Scheme will be conducting site investigation works to obtain details about the soil strata commencing in January 2025. Affected landowners have been contacted by letter.

"Precision Utility Mapping has been appointed to carry out a utility survey in January 2025, using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) methods to aquire mapped subsurface information," it said.

Nevertheless, a newsletter published last November claims progress is ongoing in terms of development of the scheme design, engineering surveys and environmental assessments.

"Scheme development and design of Portarlington’s Flood Relief Scheme - is being advanced by Binnies and Nicholas O’Dwyer (B/ NOD), together with Laois County Council, Offaly County Council and the project’s Steering Group which consists of members from the (OPW)," it said.

However, the completion of final plans is some way off. 

"The Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR) is awaiting the completion of the Stage I Scheme design before more progress can be made," it said.

Such reports are complex to prepare but must accompany any project that will have an impact on the environment such flood defences.

Newsletters produced for the project also show defences should already be in place. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

The January 2021 newsletter published a provisional table which showed that construction would start in 2023 and be completed in 2024 with the defences operational at the end of last year.

The four-year-old survey indicated the urgency of delivering a Port Flood Relief Scheme.

"Having suffered many previous flooding events, notably in August 2008, winter 2015/16 and November 2017, calls for a sensitive flood relief scheme to be constructed and protect Portarlington from future flood events have intensified," it said.

It said Black and Veatch and Nicholas O’Dwyer were appointed by Laois County Council in August 2020 to develop a flood relief scheme to protect Portarlington which is socially, environmentally, economically, and technically acceptable.

"The works likely to take place in all areas are hard defences (walls & embankments), improvement of channel conveyance (maintenance & culvert upgrade) with a possibility of increased floodplain storage where appropriate," it said.

The most recent newsletter in a series of 10 since 2021 says the aim is to submit a planning application for the scheme by the end of quarter 3 this year.

Published in November 2024, it claims a delay in submitting the planning application compared to a previous newsletter was due to further design adjustments, required as a result of consultations. It claims that the team is taking "proactive measures" to meet the scheduled milestones.