Homeowners and business people in Cork today expressed their frustration with government, state agencies and local authorities over the failure to carry out repair works to the city’s quay walls a year on from a flood which caused €100 million worth of damage.
Both the north and south channels of the River Lee burst their banks on November 19th 2009, flooding large tracts of the western side of the city from the Grand Parade in the city centre out to the Carrigrohane Road, to depths of two metres in places.
Among the areas most badly affected were the Mardyke and Washington Street where water from the south channel burst its banks and flowed across the Middle Parish where it caused a quay wall at Grenville Place to collapse as it flowed back into the north channel.
A year on, a 20-25 metre stretch of quay wall at Grenville Place remains missing. Local residents and business people gathered this morning to mark the anniversary and express their frustation at the failure to repair the wall and prevent a repeat of flooding.
Spokesman for the Mardyke Residents Barry Keane said it was incredible that a year on from the 2009 flood that a piece of infrastructure as important and as basic as a quay wall had not been repaired, exposing local people including the Mercy Hospital to a repeat of flooding.
“We just cannot understand how the quay wall at a bend in the north channel which is one of the most dangerous stretches of the river has not be repaired 12 months on - the authoritities are asking for trouble and they are going to get it and people will suffer again,” he said.
Accountant Ciaran Baxter whose property at Grenville Place was badly flooded in 2009 said the failure to repair the quay wall was a symbol of the lack of action by the authorities to address the problem which threatens both businesses and residents in the area.
Fine Gael Cllr Dara Murphy was Lord Mayor of Cork at the time of the flood and today he said that the Government had failed to deliver on promises made in the immediate aftermath of the flood that protection work would be carried out to prevent any repeat.
He said 12 months on Grenville Place was a stark reminder of inaction but there were also concerns that no steps had been undertaken to protect the Lee Waterworks which had to be shut down last year following the flooding leading to a cut of supply to thousands of homes.
A spokesman for the OPW said that the agency had allocated some 900,000 euro last June from its minor flood relief scheme to Cork City Council to allow it carry out repair work at Grenville Place and other damaged quay walls.
A Cork City Council spokesman confirmed that preliminary design work was carried out from January until May this year along with topographical surveys which were completed in May with detailed design work on Grenville Place being finalised in October.
Tenders were sought at the end of October for the repair work and completed tenders are due to be received at the close of business next Monday. A council spokesman earlier confirmed construction was likely to start late this year or early next year and take 30 weeks.
