by Alan Jacques
LIMERICK City and County Council’s emergency services have been asked to take urgent action to prevent floodwater from destroying homes on Hyde Road.
City West councillor Malachy McCreesh told The Limerick Post that he received a number of complaints last weekend from families who found their homes on the Southside of the city, blocked by floods.
“The main Hyde Road remains impassable as a result of the on-going flooding and, in spite of cones and signs highlighting the road closure, some drivers continue to speed through the water causing additional problems for the local residents. Similar flooding has occurred at Beechgrove Avenue and Crecora Avenue and this was also reported to the Emergency Services,” Cllr McCreesh explained.
The Sinn Fein politician said he had raised the issue of ongoing flooding at a section of Hyde Road over several years and it was recently discussed at a Limerick City West operational meeting.
“It is hoped that a long term solution to resolve this flooding can be developed in the very near future as it is unacceptable that residents and motorists have to endure such a serious hazard,” he said.
Senior engineer with Limerick City and County Council, Vincent Murray, said that the Service Operations Department responded to a report of a flood on Hyde Road at around 8.30am last Saturday.
The road and footpaths were flooded with up to 250mm of water and access to the front of some houses was restricted. A diversion route around the flood was set up and the council commenced pumping operations to lower the water.
“This flooding occurs a few of times a year after very heavy and intense rainfall like Ireland experienced last Friday night and Saturday morning but has never flooded before to the extent experienced last Saturday,” Mr Murray explained.
“The existing surface water infrastructure in the Hyde Road area is old and while it can deal with normal levels of rainfall, is not able to cope with long and intense periods of rainfall. The City and County Council is currently working with Limerick Regeneration to provide a long term solution to the problem on Hyde road and is hopeful that this solution can be advanced in early 2016.”
