New city flood defence is installed

New flood protection measures – including an inflatable ‘Aqua Dam’ – have been installed in the Spanish Arch and along the Promenade, ahead of high tides over the coming days.
The new systems have cost Galway City Council around €100,000 and are aimed at preventing a recurrence of the flooding seen in the city and Salthill last winter.
They also include flood gates and ‘cut-off’ valves at Toft Park to stop flooding in Lower Salthill.
The innovative new Aqua Dam was installed by local authority staff along the quay wall at Fishmarket Square on Tuesday morning.
The inflatable system – which cost between €40,000 and €50,000 – measures 80 metres in length and stretches from Wolfe Tone Bridge to the Spanish Arch itself.
It is inflated with water from the river and air to form a two-metre wide ballast at its base, and it rises 1.5m in height.
A Council spokesperson told the Galway City Tribune: “It’s basically a barrier for when high tides come. When they hit five metres, the water overtops the quay wall, and past experience has shown us that with high winds, this can cause flooding in the area.
“High tides are expected over the coming days – if they coincided with the stormy conditions last week, there would have been trouble again. We pay a lot of attention to tides, and the Aqua Dam is just one solution.
“One of the issues we’ve had in the past is shops etc getting flooded at Fishmarket Square, Quay Lane and Flood Street. This will hopefully alleviate that.
“It will be taken down again in a few days when the high tides are gone, and can be installed again in just a few hours,” the spokesperson said.

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