The newly appointed Clare CEO of Iarnróid Éireann insists a solution to flooding of the rail line at Ballycar must not focus soley on the railway line.
Persistent flooding at the site near Newmarket-on-Fergus on the Ennis to Limerick rail line is up for debate at an Oireachtas Committee this afternoon.
Clare FM’s James Mulhall reports:
Flooding at Ballycar has proven to be a persistent issue over many years now with the most recent closure lasting seven weeks at the beginning of this year.
The two-mile stretch of track has flooded 17 times since the 1930s but perhaps most worryingly, five of those incidents have been in the last 10 years.
It’s led to repeated calls for the stretch of track to be raised by 1.2 metres, a measure that would cost €10 million.
That solution was proposed in a 2015 report into the flooding at Ballycar and Commissioner John Sydenham from the OPW says it’s up to Irish Rail to pursue.
But the newly appointed CEO of Irish Rail, Clare man Jim Meade, says that’s not a long-term solution and says they’ve identified what they believe the be the optimum solution.
He says a joined-up approach will be vital.
Meanwhile, the recently retired Senior County Engineer at Clare County Council Tom Tiernan has also addressed the committee having worked on the problem for several years.
He insists their concerns aren’t being addressed and while it falls under the council’s remit to do work there, he says the Ballycar flooding goes much further than normal maintenance work.
