Minister of State at The Office of Public Works & Flood Relief, Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran, two days ago visited Shannon town, in western Ireland, and the adjacent flood defense embankments fronting the Shannon estuary to announce plans to upgrade those defenses and to construct new defenses for Shannon town.
This will be a joint project between the Office of Public Works (OPW), Clare County Council and the Shannon Airport Authority, with the Council managing the project overall.
Currently, the airport has some protection from coastal flooding from embankments on its Eastern and Western sides owned by the airport Authority. Shannon town is protected from coastal and tidal flooding by OPW maintained embankments adjacent to those at the airport.
These embankments are not constructed to modern engineering standard and require to be upgraded and strengthened in order to provide protection to at least the the 1 in 200 year tidal flood event, reported the County.
According to the County, it has been agreed between Shannon Airport Authority and the OPW in conjunction with Clare County Council that the required works to both the airport and town embankments will be brought forward as a single project.
It has also been agreed that the proposed measures to address the risk of fluvial flooding to Shannon town as set out in the Shannon river basin Flood Risk Management Plan will be incorporated into this joint project.
A project steering group has been established with representatives of Shannon Airport Authority, the OPW and Clare County Council. The group’s initial task will be to agree a brief for the procurement of engineering and environmental consultants to progress the design of the works and to examine all the required environmental considerations.