Letters to the Editor, ‘NI Water addresses concerns over Rostrevor flooding’
Dear Editor,
NI Water would like to address some concerns that have arisen in relation to NI Water’s overall commitment to Rostrevor and in particular a scheme aimed at alleviating some of the ongoing flooding problems in the area.
It is worth noting at the outset that Rostrevor has received substantial investment, in the region of £1.5 million, in the sewerage network in recent years.
The current project, aimed at alleviating flooding in the St Jude’s Gardens area, is currently at an advanced design stage and is programmed for construction in the 2013/14 financial year.
The proposal effectively involves a storm water separation scheme to remove surface water runoff from NI Water’s combined sewerage system in Rostrevor.
I wish to reassure your readers that NI Water have not simply ignored the flooding problem in Rostrevor nor have they only recently decided to step in to engineer a solution to address the problem. I can confirm that our engineering team have in fact been working on a solution over a considerable period of time.
I feel it would be worth highlighting the stages this scheme has gone through to get it to where it is at present. An extensive CCTV survey investigation of the entire catchment area around St Jude’s Gardens and also upstream sections of the Rostrevor catchment has been completed.
An in-depth appraisal of proposals has also been completed, using the findings of the CCTV survey investigations. This enabled the Engineering Team to identify the solution that is currently being progressed. The current stage in the development of the scheme involves a site investigation contract.
The purpose of the investigative works is to determine the nature, location and depth of all existing services, existing ground conditions, undertake CCTV surveying, jetting and manhole surveys to facilitate the future construction of storm sewers to alleviate out-of-sewer flooding at St Jude’s Gardens.
This contract includes for further CCTV surveying of existing sewers and trial hole investigations.
The findings from the site investigation contract are required to enable completion of detailed design of all the elements of the capital scheme, in order to provide a robust engineering solution to help alleviate the flooding problem at Jude’s Gardens, Rostrevor.
All of this work takes time, commitment and finance. While the issue of flooding is a heart-breaking one, particularly flooding of personal property and belongings, there is no quick fix solution to the complex problem presented at Rostrevor.
However, I can assure residents there is also no complacency on the part of NI Water in terms of delivering a solution. What can be done is being done as quickly as possible, within the restraints of procurement, the sheer scale of the work required and availability of budget.
NI Water will endeavour to complete the work to provide a storm water separation scheme in Rostrevor as quickly as possible and would point out that there may also be work required by other agencies which will be highlighted at the forthcoming public meeting.
Yours faithfully,
Bill Gowdy – Director of Engineering Procurement
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