Providing the supply of clean water

The water in Skerries comes from the river Liffey via Leixlip. The council fixes all bursts and leakages and carries out an on-going programme of upgrading valves and other equipment that have outlived their useful lives. Water is sampled on a continuous basis to ensure it meets quality standards.

Looking after our drains and sewerage - where does it all go?

All sewerage in Skerries gravitates to a pumping house beside the Rugby Club on the Rush Road. It is then pumped through a pipeline to Shenick Island. On the island it collects into a large septic tank for settlement to take place. It is then discharged into the sea. This system will be discontinued when the new water treatment plant is built. See below.

The sewers in the town are maintained on a regular basis. Local inspectors identify any problems and arrange for the sewers to be cleaned and repaired. Last year new foul sewers were installed in Little Strand Street and in other parts of the town centre. A new foul sewer (1 km in length) was built from the pumping station by the Rugby Club along the Rush Road as far as the reservoir.

The surface water system in the town-centre was upgraded recently. Formerly surface water had drained into the foul system putting extra pressure on it. This is no longer the case. The surface outfall to the South Strand was upgraded as a flood protection measure.

Other flood relief works were also carried on the Brook from the entrance to Skerries Mills down as far as the beach. These works included clearing out all the weeds from the Brook along this stretch. Remedial works were carried out on surface water lines into the Brook from Millers Lane.

Contact: PJ Howell, Director of Water Services, 890 5000

Balbriggan/Skerries DBO Waste Water Treatment Scheme Project Update No. 2 – March 2005

Treatment Works Site - Barnageeragh
The site at Barnageeragh, Skerries will house the various tanks/components necessary to treat the incoming waste water. To date, all of the site clearance has been completed, this work included removal of topsoil, old hedges, etc.

The excavated topsoil will be used in the final landscaping. During the site clearance activities, an area of archaeological interest was uncovered at the southwest corner of the site. A full dig was commissioned to ascertain the nature of the prehistoric find; the main areas of interest were numerous burn marks and pits and evidence of a circular ditch, The final report on this dig is pending.

The palisade fencing, which will form the permanent boundary to the site, is approximately 80% complete. Staff accommodation is also complete. This includes offices for the Resident Engineering staff and Contractors Engineering staff, storage cabins, canteen and welfare facilities for the operatives and an external storage area.

Landscaping is also well underway. The Environmental Impact Statement States that a berm, varying in height between 3.5 - 6.0m must be built around the site boundary to limit the visual impact of the finished works. Material excavated from Quay Street, Balbriggan, is being utilised to construct a portion of the berm. Part of the landscaping work included the diversion of a stream, running through the middle of the site, this stream now runs along the inside of the north site boundary.

Quay Street Storm Water Tank-
Quay Street car park in Balbriggen was closed to the public on January 24th, 2005. Signs were placed around the car park and in the train station prior to the closure to warn commuters and car park users of the closure. A letter drop was also undertaken in the vicinity of Quay Street. The entire car park has been fenced off to prevent any access by members of the public. The pedestrian entrance to the train Station may still be accessed via the harbour road or through the 2nd car park adjacent to Quay Street.

The clothing bank located in the car park had to be removed in order to facilitate the works, signs are in place on the fencing directing people to an alternative clothing bank location.

The Temporary Works commenced on the 3rd of February. This consists of an interlocking sheet pile system, driven into the ground to rock level. A steel bracing system was welded around the inside of the sheet piles just below existing ground level. The objective of these temporary works is to retain the surrounding soil and to provide a safe working area. On completion of this part of the bracing system excavation for the tank commenced, with excavated material transported to Barnageeragh in HGV’s. Additional bracing will be required when the bottom of the sheet piles are excavated. Any water encountered in the excavation is pumped into the adjacent stream, which flows into the harbour. Prior to discharge, the water passes through a settlement tank to eliminate sand and grit etc.

On completion of the storm tank, the car park will be fully reinstated and opened to the public.

Contact: John Mulcahy, Swords Project Office 890 3100

Keeping Our Streets Clean

The following is the street cleaning schedule:

	Thomas Hand St.
	Dublin Rd.,
	The Square
	Balbriggan Rd
	Church St.
	Strand St.
	Main St.
	Chapel Lane
	New St.
	All laneways leading to Strand Street.

The areas above are picked of litter and swept with the green machine from Monday to Friday between 08.00 and 16.30. At weekends (Sat & Sun) the litter is picked in those areas between 07.00 and 11.00 am. The streets in the Hoar Rock area are cleaned when required.

All litterbins are attended to every day (seven days) and the mechanical sweeper sweeps the main areas in Skerries every Saturday.

Eamonn Harford and Stephen Carey are the Street Cleaners, Don Costigan is the Supervisor and Niall Gargan is the Inspector and can be contacted on 8905956/57

Traffic Management Scheme

The traffic plan is going ahead on the basis of the decision of the Council last autumn. Surveys are taking place at the moment, which will lead to detailed drawings for exactly where parking spots are to be etc. These should be available in early July. They will then go to tender and contract, and are expecting work to start in October. There will be an opportunity during the summer for detailed tweaking, but the structure of the plan will not be changed. They intend to start with the town centre.

Contact: Peter Caulfield, Transportation peter.caulfied@fingalcoco.ie

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