WORK TO repair a 200-year-old section of quay wall beside Ringsend bridge in Dublin, which collapsed into the Dodder last February, will begin next week, Dublin City Council has said.
The repairs, which had been estimated to cost about €250,000, are now expected to cost in the region of €850,000 including €60,000 in consultancy fees, the council said.
The collapse of about 40m (130ft) of the wing wall on Fitzwilliam Quay happened in the early hours of Sunday, February 6th last, following high tide on the river.
Plans had already been in place for major reconstruction work on this section of the quay, with repeated warnings from residents and local politicians that the wall was unstable. However, following the collapse, the council said the work would be “fast-tracked”.
While the quay was screened off, work did not begin. The quay sustained further damage during recent floods, the council said.
“In the recent flooding of October 24th, the quay suffered further slippage and deterioration, making it essential to complete stabilisation and repair as emergency works.”
The council’s current estimate is that construction work will run to €600,000, diversion of utilities will cost €190,000, and there will be €60,000 in consultancy fees.
The work will be undertaken by Murphy International and is scheduled to take 16 weeks.
Local Fine Gael councillor Paddy McCartan said it was unacceptable that the council had delayed the work for so long.
“The wall has continued to deteriorate to the extent that there was a further collapse during the recent floods. There is no justification for it taking so long, and with a 16-week construction phase, the work won’t be done a year after the collapse.”
It was “extraordinary” that the costs of the work had risen so much, he said, and that so much money had been spent on consultants to identify a contractor.
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