Uisce Éireann to progress connection of a major new pipeline to secure the drinking water supply in North County Dublin.
Uisce Éireann, in partnership with Fingal County Council, is progressing a crucial project to upgrade and secure the water supply for over 350,000 customers across North County Dublin. The €28m investment involves the construction of a major new pipeline between Ballycoolin Reservoir and Swords, ensuring a more secure and reliable water supply to homes, businesses, hospitals and farms for generations to come. The additional infrastructure will also enable social and economic development across the region, catering for current and future population growth.
The existing water supply network serving the North County Dublin Region depends on a single large-diameter, concrete water pipeline that was built in the 1960s, connecting Ballycoolin Reservoir to Swords. The concrete water pipeline which transfers approximately 60 million litres of water daily to North County Dublin is operating beyond its capacity, resulting in low pressure across the region during periods of peak demand. As the concrete water pipeline is a critical piece of the supply network, it cannot be taken out of service to be upgraded. To address this, Uisce Éireann is constructing a parallel, ductile iron pipeline that will have the capacity to distribute 90 million litres of drinking water per day at high pressure from Ballycoolin reservoir to homes and businesses across North County Dublin, including Dublin Airport. It will also allow available drinking water to be diverted to areas during emergency repairs or improvement works on the existing concrete pipeline, avoiding supply disruptions for customers, and providing a more secure and reliable water supply for current and future generations. The new water pipeline will also provide increased capacity, enabling long term social and economic growth and development across the region.
To date, construction of the new pipeline has progressed without impacting customers’ water supply. Uisce Éireann is now set to commence the final phase of the project, with the new pipeline ready to be connected to the existing water network at a location on the outskirts of Swords.
Customers advised of a significant outage on Sunday, 26 February
In order to safely facilitate the new connection, it will be necessary for the water supply to be switched off for a period of time until the connection works are completed. To minimise disruption as much as possible to homes and businesses, the outage will commence in the early morning of Sunday, 26 February from 1am until approximately 11am. It is planned that supply will begin to return after this time. However, due to the size of the pipes and network, it could take up to 10 hours for normal supply to return to all customers as water refills the network, especially for those on higher ground or at the end of the network. The outage will impact customers in the following areas: Swords, Santry, Malahide, Portmarnock, Kinsealy, Ballyboughal, Lissenhall, Donabate, Portrane, Turvey, Loughshinny, Palmerstown (Fingal), Rush, Lusk, nearby M1 service stations and surrounding areas.
As per best practice, most homes and businesses will have on-site water storage to provide a backup source of water for sanitation purposes. Uisce Éireann advises customers to familiarise themselves with their storage capacity.
Alternative water supply locations
To support customers during the outage, Uisce Éireann and Fingal County Council will provide an alternative water supply at the following locations until supplies have returned to normal: Tesco Shopping Centre in Rush; Rathmore Park Car Park in Lusk; Seaview Park Car Park in Portrane; Donabate/Portrane Community Centre Car Park; St. Finian’s Catholic Church in Swords South; St. Colmcille’s GAA Club in Swords North; Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Malahide; and Portmarnock Sports and Leisure Club. Customers are reminded to use their own containers when taking water from the tanker and to boil water before consumption as a precautionary measure as per HSE advice.
Speaking about the critical nature of the project in terms of the GDA’s water supply, William McKnight, Uisce Éireann, commented: “The water supply and demand balance in Dublin and the wider Greater Dublin Area is tight as we use almost every drop of water produced each day. The delivery of this project along with a number of other ambitious projects across the GDA will not only help increase the security and resilience of the drinking water supply, it will also provide the infrastructure needed to support the building of houses and schools and attract new industry to allow companies to expand and grow.
William added: “We understand that this necessary outage may be disruptive to the local community which is why experienced water services crews will work as quickly as possible to complete the connection and restore normal water supply. I’d like to reassure our customers that the short-term inconvenience will be overshadowed by the long-term benefits that this new pipeline will deliver across North County Dublin.”
The project is being carried out by GMC Utilities Ltd on behalf of Uisce Éireann, in partnership with Fingal County Council.
Following this type of work, occasionally issues such as cloudy water (air bubbles) or internal airlocks may arise. For advice on how to resolve these issues, please visit www.water.ie/help/supply/after-an-outage/. The Uisce Éireann customer care helpline is also 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 www.water.ie.
Uisce Éireann is responsible for the delivery of all public water and wastewater services in Ireland. We are committed to continuously upgrading and developing critical infrastructure to support the growth needed in housing and across our economy, while protecting the environment and safeguarding water supplies.