A long-standing aspiration to connect the River Shannon with its estuary for boats through the construction of a weir in Limerick will finally be met when the city's navigation scheme is completed at the end of the year.
The £3 million project, part of the National Development Plan to open up the State's waterways, is one of a series which are completed or in the pipeline. The River Shannon is now connected with Lough Erne, through the Shannon-Erne Waterway, and with Dublin through the Grand Canal.
The Royal Canal project, also connecting Dublin to the Shannon, is in progress and the south-east was opened up when sections of the canalised River Barrow, linking in with the Grand Canal, were refurbished.
A grander scheme to reopen the Ulster Canal, connecting the upper Lough Erne with Lough Neagh and on to Belfast, has been estimated to cost £68.4 million sterling.
Mr Redmond Aherne, an assistant principal officer with Duchas Waterways, says the major impact of the new canal systems will fall on the Border, Midlands and West (BMW) region. "Apart from doing the job in Limerick, we are extending the navigation of the Shannon river up along the Suck River to Ballinasloe and we are also extending the navigation of the Boyle River to the town of Boyle."
The completion of the Limerick navigation scheme, complete with a city marina, will mark the end of a saga dating back two centuries when merchants funded a floating dock and lock system project aimed at overcoming the tricky tidal conditions. There is a navigation `window' of about 40 minutes for experienced boaters. "We will increase that to an average of about 16 hours a day," says the project engineer, Seamus Ryan.
In 1829, the scheme ran out of funds and there are dark tales of a falling out among the city fathers over the imposition of a toll for the use of Sarsfield Bridge, then known as Wellesley Bridge. The proposal was revisited in 1834 and again in 1923 when the Ardnacrusha power station was being planned upriver.
Now the solid block-built lock gates, idle for so long, will be included in the new weir system. The scheme is piggybacking on the city's £100 million two-year sewage treatment construction project. Together they are being carried out by Limerick Corporation, Duchas Waterways, and Shannon Development.
The sewage treatment scheme includes the laying of a 1,100-metre interceptor sewer pipe, with a 1.8 metre diameter, under the river bed, which will form the weir's foundation. It also involves the laying of a further 30 kilometres of sewer pipe and the building of pump stations and a treatment plant.
Passers-by now see a large section of the river bed exposed and a 10-metre trench being bored from the rock foundation. About four million gallons of sewage and waste water are discharged into the Shannon daily through 50 outfall pipes.
Mr Ryan says when the treatment plant is operational, it will also process waste from surrounding towns. The thermally dried sludge can be used as fertiliser and may be used as an alternative industrial fuel.
"It is a project that has got everything from an engineering point of view. It is a very exciting project," he says.
For Brendan Lynch, Shannon Development's head of tourism product development, the scheme has a unique local, regional and national significance. He says locally it will create a "left bank" centre of pubs and restaurants. Regionally, it will revitalise the Shannon Estuary by integrating it with Limerick and Lough Derg and nationally, it will create a gateway to the State's waterways.
"It is a good example of a national agency like Duchas working with a local authority like Limerick Corporation and a regional authority like ourselves, all with the same common objectives," he says.
The completion of the scheme will mark the culmination of a 10-year urban renewal programme which included the restoration of St John's Castle and the establishment of the Hunt Museum. "The number of jobs the project will create will be quite modest. The real payback in terms of employment creation and wealth creation is when a hotel or a bar is built," he says.
After 171 years, Limerick merchants appear to have laid the ghosts of the early 19th century to rest.