Cork Tidal Flood Defences

hans aus dtschl

Apologies if a thread already exists: I did search. Cork tidal flood defences are a large proposed infrastructure spend and I expected to see threads in this forum.

The long story short, Cork floods regularly. A proposal was made to build a wall around the centre part of the city. A local group object to this plan and counter-propose a tidal barrier.

Latest news as of yesterday is that the OPW are accused of overestimating the cost of a tidal barrier.
Examiner Link

CatInABox

hans aus dtschl wrote: »

Apologies if a thread already exists: I did search. Cork tidal flood defences are a large proposed infrastructure spend and I expected to see threads in this forum.

The long story short, Cork floods regularly. A proposal was made to build a wall around the centre part of the city. A local group object to this plan and counter-propose a tidal barrier.

Latest news as of yesterday is that the OPW are accused of overestimating the cost of a tidal barrier.
Examiner Link

Interesting. It seems to me though, that the tidal barrier won't be enough on it's own, as the OPW state. It'll certainly reduce the incidence of flooding, but won't stop flooding from the river itself.

Not much experience with Cork to be honest (something I'm hoping to change now that I'm back in country), so I'm just guessing. How often has flooding hit Cork just through rainfall? I.e. Flooding that occurs during a normal tide cycle, and not flooding that occurs during an abnormally high tide.

hans aus dtschl

CatInABox wrote: »

Interesting. It seems to me though, that the tidal barrier won't be enough on it's own, as the OPW state. It'll certainly reduce the incidence of flooding, but won't stop flooding from the river itself.

Not much experience with Cork to be honest (something I'm hoping to change now that I'm back in country), so I'm just guessing. How often has flooding hit Cork just through rainfall? I.e. Flooding that occurs during a normal tide cycle, and not flooding that occurs during an abnormally high tide.

I'm not an expert either, but I believe most of the flooding is tidal in nature. There's a dam up-river, managed by the ESB, so the river can be managed.

I believe the usual flooding situation occurs when a high tide coincides with a storm with South-Easterly forces.

man98

But the criticism of flood walls is that they're up to 2 metres tall and made of concrete, it would completely reshape the nature of the city - and it's unclear whether it would even work in the case of a flood - if the retractable seating fails, the city would flood. The city needs to rely on something that they know will work. Between a tidal barrier and the dam at Iniscarra, there's more than enough capacity to prevent floors.

snotboogie

man98 wrote: »

But the criticism of flood walls is that they're up to 2 metres tall and made of concrete, it would completely reshape the nature of the city - and it's unclear whether it would even work in the case of a flood - if the retractable seating fails, the city would flood. The city needs to rely on something that they know will work. Between a tidal barrier and the dam at Iniscarra, there's more than enough capacity to prevent floors.

Two metres??? I've seen the plans and they look to be about four feet max.

man98

snotboogie wrote: »

Two metres??? I've seen the plans and they look to be about four feet max.

I should clarify, it's up to 2 metres. Should be lower in the very centre of the city.

EdgeCase

It’s actually one of Ireland prettiest quayside cities and quite unlike the quays in Dublin, the river is bigger and much more visible. It’s more like a Dutch city in some ways.

I sincerely hope the OPW don’t make a total mess of it.

For anyone unfamiliar, that’s how the Cork quaysides look

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1SBG3lix_s

You can see why sensitive treatment is needed to ensure that cityscape isn’t wrecked by a cheap solution.