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| Water main at Moorhill, south of Brannockstown © Eugene Brennan |
Pipe
laying seems to have been completed on the Brannockstown to Dunlavin
road as part of the Dunlavin Water Supply Rationalisation Project. The
project involves construction of approximately 7 km of pipeline
connecting Dunlavin to a new booster pumping station at the
Brannockstown Pumping Station site. According to Uisce Éireann, the new supply is to:
"Increase security and resilience of the drinking water supply to approx. 1,000 customers in the area."
A tunnelling technique was used to
lay the new water main and this is known as horizontal directional drilling. Rather
than digging trenches and covering, tunnels were bored under the road
surface, using a coring bit. The patches of new tarmac visible at
regular intervals along the road before it was resurfaced were the
access points for the drilling apparatus and where pipe sections were
threaded underground. The railway bridge at the turn for Boleybeg on the
Dunlavin road would have been an obstacle and I noticed while cycling
by this location a couple of weeks ago that tunnelling for pipe laying
is now taking place in the land in front of houses. David Walsh Civil
Engineering were the contractors awarded the project by Uisce Éireann.
See also: Dunlavin Water Supply Rationalisation Project.
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| © Eugene Brennan |
