Irish Water has awarded the contract for the design and construction of the Cobh Town networks contract to a Farrans Construction and Sorensen Civil Engineering Limited joint venture as part of the €144 million Cork Lower Harbour Main Drainage Project.

In partnership with Cork County Council the water company is working to end the decades-long practice of discharging raw sewage directly into Cork Lower Harbour.

Wastewater will be collected in the new sewer network and pumped via the estuary to Shanbally Wastewater Treatment Plant for safe discharge to Cork Lower Harbour.

When works on the contract are completed in 2021, the raw sewage from Cobh Town will be treated, completing the connection of 20,000 homes and businesses to the Cork Lower Harbour scheme, protecting the environment, facilitating economic development and providing for a growing population.

Currently untreated wastewater is discharged through 19 outfall pipes

Wastewater from Cobh Town’s homes and businesses is collected in the existing sewer network and then discharges untreated through 19 outfall pipes directly into Cork Harbour.

The Cobh Network Contract will collect that wastewater by building approximately 7km of sewer mains and 5 new pumping stations. The wastewater will be transferred for treatment via the Cobh to Monkstown Estuary Crossing to Monkstown pumping station, from where it will be pumped to Shanbally Wastewater Treatment Plant for treatment before its safe discharge to the harbour. The works are expected to take approximately two years to complete.

Déaglán Healy, project manager at Cork Lower Harbour Main Drainage Project commented:

“When we started construction of this project in 2015, the equivalent of 40,000 wheelie bins of raw sewage was discharging into the Harbour every day. We halved that through the construction of the Shanbally Wastewater Treatment Plant and connection of Crosshaven, Carrigaline and Shanbally.

“We have completed all the pipelines on the south side of the harbour. We connected Ringaskiddy Village to the treatment plant in October 2018 and we will start treating the wastewater from Passage West, Glenbrook and Monkstown later this month. At this stage the equivalent of 30,000 wheelie bins of sewage will be treated daily and discharge safely to the harbour. We are now moving to the North side of the harbour with the award of the Cobh Networks Contract, another significant milestone towards ending the discharge of raw sewage into the Lower Harbour area.”