Construction BUSINESS

Dublin City Council’s South Campshire Flood Protection Project has won the Engineers Ireland Excellence Award in the ‘Local Authority Engineering Initiative category’. Following recent extreme flood events, a review was carried out in Dublin city to look at the capacity of the existing coastal flood defences. This identified some areas of the south city as being at risk, particularly the South Campshires.

Dublin City Council in partnership with the Office of Public Works initiated a design process to address this urgent issue. A comprehensive and distinctive design was adopted to provide a new flood system comprising of new reinforced concrete walls and flood gates, circa 1.1 km in length from Georges Quay to Sir John Rogerson’s Quay.

Gerard O’Connell, Project Manager, said: “The Flood Defence Unit of Dublin City Council is very honoured to receive this prestigious award from Engineers Ireland. It is a nice reward to get following three years of hard work by the project team.”

The project is unique in that it not only protects against flooding, but also employs a holistic approach, encompassing architectural elements to maintain and enhance the character of both the historical and contemporary aspects of this civic amenity. This has resulted in a decorative staggered flood wall being used, the introduction of a new two way cycle track, new paving and plantings throughout the scheme and the creation of a new bespoke civic space at George’ s Quay.

The final outcome of the project is a value for money high quality flood defence scheme, protecting not only thousands of residents and business, but also the tens of thousands of people who use the campshires daily.

The scheme was lead by Dublin City Council’s project team leader Engineer-in-Charge Gerard O’Connell and Executive Engineers David Ryan and John McCooey.  They were supported by the OPW, Engineering Consultants Aecom and Shaffreys Architects.