Limerick's main drainage scheme has delivered the city its long-awaited marina but compensation may have to be paid to companies whose premises are sinking close to where a huge sewerage tunnel is being bored.
The owners of buildings on the Corcanree Industrial Estate on the Dock Road have engaged a solicitor to represent them after they noticed cracks in walls, doors jamming, and external walls, yards and footpaths subsiding. No claim has been made against the corporation which is carrying out the £100 million drainage works but the companies affected considered taking an injunction to stop the work. Now, protocols have been agreed between engineers representing both sides and the situation is being monitored.
The corporation does not accept the building of a 2.5 kilometre main sewer pipe 15 metres down has caused the subsidence. The pipe will run the full length of the Dock Road between Corcanree pumping station and Harvey's Quay.
Mr Seamus Ryan, the project engineer, said there was a history of settlement in the area before work began last month. The ground consisted of a silty clay on limestone which contracted when the water-table went lower. "We are confident that we are not the cause of any settlement that may be going on at the moment. That does not mean that settlement did not happen," he said.
The corporation's contractors, J. Murphy & Sons, have purchased a £2 million tunnel boring machine which keeps the pressure higher inside the tunnelled area than on the outside. "We are keeping everything within the specification we have agreed. We have the best of technical advice."
But Mr Morgan Leahy, of Interlink Express, believes works carried out last year may be responsible. One company was facing a £250,000 bill, he said. Although there is no structural damage to the newer buildings in the area, sewage pipes are cracking. "We can always sue them at a later stage but to get an injunction to stop them now could have led to massive damages."
One company representative is also unhappy at the loss of frontage following the erection of hoardings by the corporation. Mr Kieran Maher, of M2 Office Supplies, said his trade had been affected. "The main drainage is needed in Limerick but there was no specific consultation with anyone in Corcanree."
The marina, with 70 berths, was officially opened yesterday by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, who noted "the visionary partnership" between the corporation, Shannon Development and Water ways Ireland. "The benefits which this project will bring to Limerick are almost incalculable. There is the opportunity of attracting boaters and tours from upriver and from the estuary and beyond," she said.
Mr Liam McElligott, chairman of Shannon Development, said the region could now be promoted for marine and water sports holidays.
As a navigation scheme, the marina project was separate to the drainage one and, at £3.35 million, cost a fraction of the price and its benefits had long been recognised. The corporation has produced 50,000 copies of a commemorative magazine which recounts how the project was first mooted in 1822. The difficulty of navigating a 30-metre fall between Killaloe and Limerick was surmounted through the building of a canal system but a cost overrun prevented a scheme for a tidal dock and float dock being completed. Again in 1834 and 1923 navigation schemes between the River Shannon and its estuary were examined.
The new weir along Arthur's Quay and Custom House Quay means a permanent minimum water depth of 1.7 metres is kept and a set of locks constructed around the original scheme at Sarsfield Bridge gives access to the estuary 16 hours a day.
The Mayor of Limerick, Cllr Dick Sadlier, said the marina marked an important stage in the transformation of Limerick. "The old picture of poverty, depression and decaying buildings depicted in some recent literature was undoubtedly true but, unfortunately, many people outside Limerick city fail to realise that what they are reading is a literary snapshot of a particular era."