IRISH Water has outlined progress of major works to upgrade the sewer network in Blanchardstown and surrounding areas and is asking the public to help prevent blockages in the system.
Working in partnership with Fingal City Council, over 46km of the sewer network is being cleaned and surveyed for defects to allow any repairs to take place.
To date 90 percent of the sewer cleaning and surveying work has been completed across the Carpenterstown, Clonsilla, Clonee, Mulhuddart, Blanchardstown Village, Corduff and Damastown areas.
The survey work enables Irish Water to pinpoint where there are cracked, broken or obstructed sewers that need to be repaired.
In the last two months sewer repair works have begun in the Castleknock area with over 82 repairs completed to date.
Irish Water says it will continue to carry out repairs across the sewer network and it is expected work will be ongoing into early 2019.
“The existing sewer network serving Blanchardstown, like all sewers, needs to be maintained,” an Irish Water spokesperson said.
“Defects in sewers include the build-up of debris and foreign objects such as stones, bottles, baby wipes, accumulating fats and greases, intruding tree roots all of which if not removed will ultimately cause the sewer to block and overflow causing localised sewer flooding.
“A number of structural defects will also be repaired such as cracked, fractured and broken pipelines and defective connections. These works are required to protect the sewer network against failure and sewer flooding.”
Once defects have been identified they are assessed so that the optimum design solution is determined. The majority of the sewer repairs will be carried out by trenchless technology designed to minimise the impact of works on the local community.
The works include the installation of liners within the existing sewer network to protect the normal operation of the network.
The majority of works will be carried out between normal working hours. However, Irish Water has warned of “some small areas” where night work will be required to mitigate disruption to traffic, pedestrians’, local businesses and local services.
To help prevent blockages in the sewer network Irish Water is asking the public to retrain from putting items into the sewer and to follow the advice in the Think Before You Flush and Think Before You Pour campaigns.
“Items such as baby wipes, face wipes, cleaning wipes, nappies and sanitary products should never ben flushed down the toilet and fat, oils and grease should never be poured down the sink as they all cause blockages in our sewer network,” a spokesperson said.
“These types of blockages can cause sewer overflows and sewer repairs and cleaning to be carried out.