COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM AREA COMMITTEE
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
QUESTION NO. 8
QUESTION: Councillor A.M. Dermody
"To ask the Manager to address the issue of the collapse of the river bank and the future maintenace of the Owendore River along Willbrook Road at that section backing onto the houses on Glenbrook Park. The walls have been washed away and numerous large trees are growing out of the river banks, which in turn are undermining garden walls and the foot bridge. In particular at the location of an old weir to the rear of 45 Glenbrook Park the river bank is seriously undermined and poses a risk to the public road (Willowbrook Road). There needs to be an assessment of that complete stretch of river, not just the damaged foot bridge to see what remedial work now could be done to avoid serious damage during the next “24th October” type flood. This is serious?"
REPLY:
The Roads Section have engaged a Consulting Engineer to advise them on how to remedy the situation with regards to the foundation of Glenbrook Footbridge which was washed away during the 24th October 2011 deluge. This Consultant's brief may be extended to look at the undermining of walls upstream of this footbridge. The weir just upsteam of Glenbrook Footbridge is part of the hydrometric station that measures the flows in the Owendore River and is not the cause of any undermining of walls in the vicinity. The Drainage Section will look at the necessity to remove trees in this area. A large sycamore tree just downstream of this footbridge was removed in February 2011. Discussions are taking place with the OPW to see if this work could be funded out of their Minor Works Scheme budget.