Knocknacarra ‘threat to lives’ made safe

A controversial water-filled ‘hole in the ground’ beside the Galway Gateway retail complex in Knocknacarra – assessed as being a threat to lives – has been drained by the National Asset Management Agency.

A property management agency acting on behalf of NAMA installed a new water pump recently and worked on emptying hundreds of thousands of litres of storm water from the hole, which had built up after the site was abandoned in 2007.

The excavated hole – adjacent to the Dunnes outlet – has now been completely drained, and work is taking place to ensure strict site safety controls are put in place.

The original builders – the Dublin-based Rumbold, part of the Moritz development group – had to stop work on the second phase of the complex (also known as Galway West Retail Park and Knocknacarra Shopping Centre) in 2007 when finance dried up.

NAMA subsequently seized control of the 52-acre site in January 2012 and was granted permission last June to retain the hole for a period of three years, and must fill it in if no development takes place during that period.

The next phase of the development was to include one of the country’s first state-of-the-art ‘primary care’ health facilities, crèche, a KFC drive-thru, three cafés, seven more retail units, 34 apartments and 150 parking spaces.

However, work on the 3.5 acre portion of the site was abandoned because of the economic downturn and the inability of the developers to secure finance.

A safety audit of the site carried out for NAMA found it was “highly likely” there would be a fatality unless controls were put in place.

 For more on this story, see the current edition of the Galway City Tribune