Celbridge Flooding - Any Remedial Works Recently Undertaken?

Hockney

Hi all,

I'm considering buying in Celbridge around Wolstan Haven, I've read on here and elsewhere that Celbridge is particularly flood-prone, which is a worry!

I dug up this Celbridge Local Area Plan document by Kildare CoCo from 2010: http://kildare.ie/CountyCouncil/Planning/DevelopmentPlans/LocalAreaPlans/CelbridgeLocalAreaPlan/LinkToDocument,23083,en.pdf

It stipulates: "Flooding has been identified as a problem in Celbridge. However, flood alleviation works will be undertaken with the assistance of the Office of Public Works (OPW), on the Toni River catchment from the Oldtown Road to its outfall to the River Liffey. It is expected that these works will be completed by the end of 2009."

Would anyone know if these works have been undertaken, or point me in the right direction as to where I might find more info about flooding in Celbridge? A zonal map of Celbridge indicating particularly flood-prone areas would be ideal.

I've heard nightmare stories about houses getting flooded, and when the floods eventually subside, insurance companies won't insure the house for future flooding.

Would Kildare CoCo/OPW take these queries directly? Or would structural engineers who check out the house prior to purchase cover this kind of stuff?

Thanks in advance.

dobsdave

I dont remember seeing this done, however I was away from Celbridge from 2009-12.
The only issue I have ever seen in 20years,was when the main street was flooded, but thats virtualy on the river bank.
So unless you're looking at houses down at that level....

Maybe others have more info.

cgarvey

Hockney wrote: »

Would anyone know if these works have been undertaken

Certainly some of the works on said river were carried out. If you look at this map you'll see the thin blue line of the river (back from the Liffey on lower left, under Main Street, past Haven Plant Hire (off Main St), in to a green area in Dara Court, and along the south east wall of the soccer club's pitch before making its way north west towards Oldtown.

I know the soccer pitch portion was dug up with new wider underground tunnel/drain put in place, and the opening in that green area in Dara Court was widened, and deepened (to allow for storm surges), as well as a lot of clearing of the underground portions either side of it.

I can't remember when that was done, but I'd guess 2 summers ago.

As for general flooding, there's been no flooding in most parts of Celbridge for hundreds of years. Down around Hazelhatch seems to be lower down, but less populated; you'd often see flooding in the land there (but not in the housing estates on the Hazelhatch side of Celbridge). The OPW have a site where you can review previous flooding instances.

Certainly nothing of the scale of the Main St flooding from years ago (and there's been a few tests of it since!).

As for insurance, there are still problems. Some companies blanket ban Celbrdige (any part) which is crazy. Others (despite using the same underwriter) have a more relaxed approach of "if you live within X metres of a river/drain". Others, again, have no such restriction, but when I last shopped they tended to be at least 25% dearer than the others.

2ndcoming

The area your talking about is the "River Toni", it's a stream really but has caused problems in the neighbouring estate Vanessa Lawns in the past in extreme rain periods (once or maybe twice in 30 years) as the trench for it wasn't dug deep enough when the estate was being built. It's underground in Wolstan Haven so wouldn't be a problem there.

Anywhere else in the town is flood problem free bar along the banks of the Liffey.

I've no idea how that smiley got up there but it seems I can't get rid of it.

Coopaloop

My parents live in Vanessa Close where that river runs through, their house got flooded back then and it was one of the most devastating times ever, thankfully for insurance they were covered and all repairs were carried out. They won't have flood cover for another year, the underwriters put an endorsement to say no flood cover until the estate is flood free for a certain number of years.
The residents in the estate kicked up a real fuss with the council and have had the stream totally cleared out and a grate put up also. To be honest it was the drains in the estate that did a lot of damage as they were not cleaned out enough, now there are checks done on these and the stream every couple of months. We have had very heavy rain since then and in the past this would have had the stream nearly over flowing but since it's cleaned out it rarely gets even half full thank god

So I think you will be fine in that estate, it might be doubtful that you will get flood cover without a huge excess, but the likelihood of you needing this cover is unlikely.