Drainage

The functions of the City Council's Drainage Programme can be divided into two categories.

Drainage Maintenance

Cork City Council has responsibility for the maintenance of all the main sewers and culverts in the City. There are approximately 200 miles of such sewers. They also maintain the large interceptor sewers which have been laid over the past number of years. There are at present 56 storm overflow chambers and 8 storm water holding tanks which require regular maintenance. There are 14 small pumphouses and one major pumphouse at Gilabbey which require attention. Cork City Councils Drainage Department has responsibility for the maintenance of all main public sewers and culverts in the city. The abatement of nuisance on private drains is also dealt with.
Private Drains Information Leaflet

Some cleaning and general maintenance is done on the Lee, Glen, Bride and Kiln, Curraheen, Two Pot and Glasheen Rivers. Maintenance of public toilets and twice daily inspections of lifebuoys, is also a function of the Drainage Section. Improvement works are carried out on the main sewer network each year as required subject to availability of funds.

This section also provides sewer conectors.

• Complaints may be made to the contacts listed above, where they are passed on to technical staff for investigation 
• Connections are made by City Council Staff, following payment of a fee and obtaining of a Road Opening Licence (where applicable) 
• Cork City Council must be notified of any intention to tap into a manhole

Classes of Records Held

• Complaints records
• Files regarding all drainage schemes
• Sewer Connections
• Road Opening Licences
• Maps showing locations of main sewers

Major Drainage Schemes

Since 1969, £17 million has been expended on the Cork Main Drainage Scheme. All the main interceptor sewers have now been completed with the exception of Interceptor No. 4 which intercepts land draining to the river in the Glanmire, Lower Road area. All the outlets to the river from the northern and southern parts of the City have now been intercepted and discharge at Penrose Quay and Kennedy Quay respectively, downstream of the Central Island. To comply with the EU Wastewater Directive and the Government's Environmental Action Programme, all existing discharges of untreated sewage to the river must be collected and brought to a site where it can be treated.

E.G. Pettit's 1992 Preliminary Report on Cork Main Drainage, adopted by the City Council, recommended that all sewage discharges be collected and brought to Carrigrennan, Little Island, where a Sewage Treatment Plant would be constructed to cater for Cork City and surrounding areas. Following an Oral Hearing in 1995, Bord Plean?la granted full planning permission to construct the Plant.

A Public Health Inquiry was held in 1996 following which the Minister for the Environment & Local Government approved the Scheme. Cork City Council have now embarked on a major programme of drainage works to complete the Main Drainage Scheme over the next few years. The work has been divided into three phases of contracts which will run concurrently.

Other Drainage Works

In addition to the main drainage works a length of culvert from Glen Hall, Blackpool, to Brewery Corner was completed in 1999 at a cost of £2.5m. The new culvert is on the line of the proposed Blackpool Bypass and will facilitate the construction of the road. The completion of the Kiln culvert will relieve the serious flooding problems being experienced in Blackpool over the years.

Main Drainage Scheme Contract Phases

Over £50 million has been expended by the City Council on the Cork Main Drainage Scheme todate. The effect of this work has been to move the location of the existing outfall points from the north and south of the City to a point just downstream of the eastern tip of the Central Island.

To comply with the E.U. Wastewater Directive and the Government's Environmental Action Programme, the City Council are now well advanced on works to complete the Cork Main Drainage Scheme by the end of the year 2003. The works involve:

• collecting all discharges of untreated effluent to the river and transporting the sewage to the new Treatment Plant site at Carrigrennan
• constructing a new foul sewer system for the Central Island of the City
• constructing a new Treatment Plant for Cork City and surrounding areas in a green field site 

Work in progress

Some interesting construction techniques are being used on the Cork Main Drainage contracts at present underway.

Atlantic Pond Pumping Station

Work on this huge pumping station, which will be one of the largest in the Country, is progressing at the Marina.

Main Interceptor Sewer

A huge pipe over 3 metres in diameter is being laid from the Atlantic Pond Pumping Station to the City, a distance of 2.6 kilometres. A tunnelling machine is boring its way along the line of Monaghan Road and Victoria Road, towards Kennedy Quay, unnoticed by the road users overhead. A small train runs within the pipe, from the Atlantic Pond to bring new pipe segments to the tunnel face and to remove the excavated material.

Large cylindrical concrete structures are being constructed on the surface along the line of the main Interceptor sewer. The ground inside these structures is being excavated, which allows the structure to sink into the ground under its own weight. All the large concrete cylinders at present visible on Horgans Quay, Kennedy Quay and along Monaghan Road will disappear under the ground over the next few months, to become access shafts for the main sewer line.

Tunnelling under the river from Horgans Quay to Kennedy Quay will commence in the middle of the year 2000.

Work will continue in the City Centre Island laying a complete new sewerage system. This work will be managed, as has been the case up to now, to minimise disruption as far as possible. In the year 2000, work will concentrate on the Grand Parade and Washington Street area. Work in the Historic City Centre area will be completed next year by a direct labour unit of the City Council. There is very careful archaeological supervision of the works and the City Archaeologist will report on his findings in due course.

Phase 1
Work is in progress on the following contracts: -

• City Centre Contract Number 1:
  Start Date: 1999. Estimated Completion: 2001
• Historic City Centre Area:
  Start Date: 1998. Estimated Completion: 2001
• Boreenmanna Road Scheme:
  Start Date: 1999. Completed. 
• Main Interceptor Sewer and Siphon:
  Start Date: 1999. Estimated Completion: 2001
• Atlantic Pond Pumping Station:
  Start Date: 1999. Estimated Completion: 2001
• Summerhill North/Lower Glanmire Road:
  Start Date: 1999. Completed
• City Centre Drainage Contract No. 2:
  Start Date: 2001. Estimated Completion: 2003  

Phase 2

• Rising Mains from Atlantic Pond and Tramore Valley:
  Start Date: Late 2000. Estimated Completion: 2002
• Lough Mahon Siphon Crossing:
  Start Date: Early 2001. Estimated Completion: 2002
• Interceptor Sewer No. 4:
  Start Date: Late 2000. Estimated Completion: 2002
• Little Island Sewerage Schemes:
  Start Date: 2001. Estimated Completion: 2002

Phase 3

• Treatment Plant and Outfall Pipe:
  Start Date: Early 2001. Estimated Completion: 2003 

The Cork Main Drainage Scheme will cost over €250 million to complete. At that stage, when the Treatment Plant is operational, the waters of the Lee and Lough Mahon will dramatically improve, reaching Bathing Water Standards.

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