Patience with OPW on flood works is “running out”

It's “simply not good enough” that work on flood defences in Athlone continues to drag on with completion “a long way off” in some areas.

That's the frustrated view of Cllr Aengus O'Rourke, the current Cathaoirleach of Westmeath County Council, who said the OPW as contractor began work on this project in late 2017 and it was estimated it would take three years to complete.

With the refurbishment of Mardyke Street/Sean Costello Street area about to kick off, and the imminent start by Irish Water on a major upgrade of the drainage system, he said OPW needs to finish their work before the other projects begin.

The work consists of some eight cells each one dealing with a specific risk area in Athlone - from Golden Island on the east side, to The Park and Deerpark Road on the westside.

“The project was initially estimated to take three years to deliver, so it should have been completed in late 2020. Even allowing for Covid, all of the eight cells should be very much nearing completion by now.

Unfortunately, a number of the cells are still a long way off completion, and if recent progress is anything to go by, completion could be a considerable time away yet!

“I get very frustrated when I look at the lack of progress at The Strand, Marine View, Sr Bernard Quay, Golden Island, Deerpark Road/The Show Grounds.

“Marine View is a building site for the past three years with very little progress evident for long periods of time. This is a small river-side residential area and the residents have been looking out at barriers, bollards and construction debris now for three years, it’s just not good enough,” he complained.

“The pace of work is simply not fast enough or consistent enough. For some reason, some days the workers are there and most days they are not. I want to know why.

“I have a lot of people from the affected areas complaining about the slow pace of work and I have to agree with them. In terms of people’s patience, the OPW are running out of road,” he continued, adding that he has asked the council executive to engage urgently with the OPW to get a comprehensive update and a completion timeline for next month's council meeting.

“My concerns are also heightened because we are about the commence a major refurbishment of Mardyke Street/Sean Costello Street/ Pump Lane in the coming months.

“And Irish Water is due to commence the €113 million upgrade of our main drainage network in the town.

“We really need the OPW finished up and gone out of Athlone before we start into our other large construction projects. We can’t possibly have three large-scale town centre construction projects happening all at the same time, it’s hard enough to manage the disruption caused by one, I can’t imagine the problems that three happening in parallel would cause. The businesses won’t allow it and the people won’t allow it,” he concluded.

The OPW has been contacted for comment on the project.