20 January 2022
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Irish Water, working in partnership with Cork County Council, is replacing 1.3km of problematic watermains in Stonefield, Kilcorney which will improve water quality for the community.
The project will commence in late January and form part of Irish Water’s National Leakage Reduction Programme. The works will also involve laying new water service connections from the public water main in the road to customers’ property boundaries and connecting it to the customers’ water supply.
The works, being carried out by Ward and Burke Limited on behalf of Irish Water, will take place on the L1119 road for approximately 1.3km due west towards Millstreet from Moll Carthy’s Bridge and is expected to take five weeks to complete.
Outlining the benefits the mains replacement will bring, Steven Blennerhassett from Irish Water, explained: “Replacing these old and problematic pipes in Kilcorney will reduce the drinking water lost by leakage and will bring an all-round improvement to water quality for the local community.
Steven added: “To facilitate the safe delivery of the upgrades, there may be some traffic management in place, however, local and emergency access will be maintained at all times.
“Works will be limited to short sections to minimise impact on customers. During this project there may be some short-term water outages and the project team will ensure that customers are given a minimum of 48 hours notice before any planned water outages.
“We understand that road works and water outages can be inconvenient, but our crews will make every effort to minimise disruption to local communities as we continue to improve the water supply in Cork and progress the National Leakage Reduction Programme.”
Irish Water’s customer care helpline is open 24/7 on 1800 278 278 and customers can also contact us on Twitter @IWCare with any queries. For updates please visit the Water Supply Updates section of the Irish Water website or set your location on our website www.water.ie
Irish Water has invested over €500 million between 2017 and the end of 2021 to reduce leakage and replace old pipes on the public water network. Fixing leaks can be complicated but we are making progress. In 2018 the rate of leakage nationally was 46%, by the end of 2021 it was reduced to 38%.
For more information on reducing leaks visit our National Leakage Reduction Programme page.