Main road into athlone may avoid watermains closure
The closure of the main road into Athlone at The Crescent, along Garden Vale and Gleeson Street, as part of the watermains rehabilitation scheme may not be necessary due to a new watermain having been constructed when Athlone Towncentre was being built, it emerged this week.
An update on the project was given to councillors at the October meeting of Athlone Municipal District on Monday.
District Administrator Gerry McCormack presented a report on behalf of senior project engineer Grahame Niven. Mr McCormack told councillors that once crew one completed work on the section outside Centra in Irishtown it would start work from the Sheraton over The Crescent and out the Ballymahon Road. They were informed that trial pits will be required to determine the best line.
However, Independent Cllr Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran queried whether these works were necessary.
“We closed that road for the development of the Towncentre, we closed the road down to The Crescent and there’s a new watermain put in there. Is it necessary to put in a 10 inch pipe? If we do have to close it can it be done in two sections?” he asked, pointing out that it is the main thoroughfare into the town and there are a lot of doctors’ surgeries located on Garden Vale.
Director of Services Barry Kehoe said he was aware of the watermain on Ballymahon Road/Gleeson Street and after speaking with the engineer had been under the impression that it was sufficient but in light of Monday’s report he would follow this up again.
Yesterday (Tuesday) contractor Shareridge shed some light on the subject and it is hoped the watermain installed some years ago will be sufficient, but tests will be needed to ascertain if this is the case.
Shareridge’s Declan McCormack explained: “We have heard about it. We have plans to trial hole it to make sure it’s sufficient. We’ll need three to five trial holes to make sure it is adequate.”
He said it would probably be another three weeks before this work began and it would take about a week, but a stop/go system, rather than closure, was more likely to be in place.
On other works around the town, Mr McCormack said Mardyke Street was due to be tarred yesterday and reopened today. Work from St Mary’s Place to Gleeson Street is due to get underway today and will take seven to ten working days to complete.
Once that is complete work will begin at the Dunnes Stores junction, which will necessitate the closure of this junction and the work is expected to take three days.
On the town’s westside, work on Connolly Street got underway yesterday and is expected to be finished by Friday of next week.
Work is ongoing on the Dublin Road and the stop/go system there is expected to be in place for the next fortnight.
At Monday’s meeting Cllr John Dolan said he agreed with Cllr Moran about Gleeson Street and said when works begin on the main arteries in the town they seem to just appear overnight and asked that signs could be put up two to three days in advance.