Irish Water plans to invest €9.5m to boost water supplies in Balbriggan and Howth

Irish Water and Fingal County Council are planning to make investments to improve water supplies in the Balbriggan and Howth areas of Ireland.

As part of this, the water utlity will carry out site investigations to analyse the existing water infrastructure in Balbriggan and Howth.

The investigation will help Irish Water study the design required to build 5.7km of new water mains for Balbriggan, as well as 6.2km of water mains for Howth, along with addition of extra water storage capacity.

The company intends to invest a total of €9.5m to boost supply of water in the two regions, €4.8m in Balbriggan and €4.7m in Howth.

Estimated to continue for 18 months, construction of the new water main projects is due to start in the fourth quarter of this year for Balbriggan and in the first quarter of 2017 for Howth.

The new projects will not only increase the pressure of water supply, but will also ensure safe provision to residents of the two regions.

The Balbriggan project will resolve the water supply issue due to insufficient capacity of the existing pipelines from Jordanstown reservoir to Balbriggan.

It will reduce the dependence on the present Bog of the Ring groundwater source, as well as on pumped water in the Balbriggan area, and will also ensure sufficient water supply to the region during peak demands.

With construction of 6.2km of a new 400mm trunk water main, the Howth project will be able to increase the storage capacity, as well as ensure supply of quality water.

Water pressure to Corr Bridge and Strand Road pumping stations will also improve after the completion of this project.

New 2,600m³ storage will be built to increase the storage capacity at Dungriffen Reservoir. A new pumping station and chlorination system will also be installed.

This is part of Irish Water’s aim to invest €5.5bn up to 2021 in order to upgrade and replace existing plants, water mains and sewers.