Award
for D15 water tower
One
of the largest engineering projects of its type in Ireland has recently
been completed in Dublin 15 by Fingal County Council.
The newly completed reservoir at Ballycoolin is the largest covered
reservoir in the country. While the reservoir by its nature is not immediately
visible from any distance, the adjoining 34 metre high water tower is
already a local landmark and a clear feature of the local skyline.
According to Corinna Elder, Senior Executive Engineer with the Council’s
Water Services Department, the purpose of the project was to provide
security of supply and boost water pressure to North County Dublin,
parts of Dublin City and County Meath.
Putting the scale of the project into perspective she explained that
the floor area of the reservoir is twice the size of the pitch in Croke
Park and holds 100 million litres of water. The adjoining water tower
which holds 5 million litres will boost pressure in the surrounding
high level area.
Ballycoolin reservoir was originally constructed in 1966 and as a result
of various developments over the years its capacity eventually reached
91,000 million litres. The new works have more than doubled this capacity.
The water stored in Ballycoolin is produced at the county council’s
water treatment plant on the River Liffey in Leixlip and is pumped from
there through 13.5km of pipes to the reservoirs.
With the completion of the new reservoir, the existing reservoirs will
be taken out of service, surveyed and essential maintenance and upgrading
will be carried out.
Meanwhile two new pumped water mains are being constructed linking Leixlip
with Ballycoolin and these will be completed early next year. An extension
of the Leixlip plant is also proposed for completion by 2010 and the
combination of these works will provide an additional 80 million litres
of water to be distributed from Ballycoolin.
The combined cost of the water tower, reservoir, rising mains and rehabilitation
of the existing reservoirs is approximately €90m while the cost
of the expansion of the Leixlip facility is estimated to be €55m.
As well as being recognised for its new high visibility on the Dublin
15 skyline, the new Ballycoolin water tower was also recently selected
for recognition for its engineering success.
At its recent awards ceremony LAMA, the Local Authority Members Association,
presented Fingal County Council with the prize for the best Civil Engineering\Project
for the new water tower.
The award was presented to Cllr. Alan Farrell, mayor of Fingal by John
Gormley TD, Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
Community Voice, Media
House, Church Avenue, Blanchardstown,
Dublin 15
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info@communityvoice.ie
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