Multi-million sewer work may see City Centre ripped up

The Chief Executive of Galway City has revealed that the Council is in discussions with Irish Water about replacing the combined sewer underneath the pedestrianised artery of the town.
Some 15 years ago there was widespread disruption across the city centre for five months when cobblestones were laid down at a cost of £3 million.
Now it appears they are to be ripped up.
The sagging in large sections of the pedestrianised streets – where large puddles gather in just the lightest of showers – can only be rectified when the century-old sewer is replaced, Brendan McGrath has admitted.
The condition of the combined mains taking foul water and drainage has been blamed in part for the chronic flooding on the Quay Street end of the city last winter.
It is also responsible for the surface sagging, causing the street to be desperately uneven where the footfall is heaviest.
The condition of paving in the pedestrian zone – from William Street, Shop Street, Mainguard Street, High Street to Quay Street – is of ongoing concern to the council staff, Mr McGrath told Galway Bay FM this week.
“There’s a very old sewer running underneath it and that requires very extensive money to be spent on it. The repair of that sewer is now the responsibility of Irish Water. I don’t have an exact estimate but it’s definitely a seven figure sum,” he stated.
“Because it’s [the sewer] been problematic for a number of years, it’s causing the paving to slip and sink a bit. It’s also responsible for the flooding that occurs on Shop Street at times of heavy rain.
“We’ve been in discussion with Irish Water. I don’t know when we can bring those to a successful conclusion.”

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.