Irish Water and Mayo County Council have apologised to everyone affected by unplanned outages in the Ballina area this week and thanked them for their patience while work was ongoing.
Irish Water working in partnership with Mayo County Council confirmed that the three burst pipes which caused water outages for thousands of customers in the Ballina area on Monday and Tuesday and into Wednesday morning have been successfully repaired. However, while repair crews were monitoring water flow in the town on Wednesday morning they discovered excessive increased demand in the Bohernasup area. This is a district metering area and using technology available to detect leaks in the system, a leak was detected which will require a minor repair. Disruption has been isolated to approximately 10 houses and the repair should take no more than a few hours to complete.
The repairs to the original three bursts were complex due to their proximity to existing utilities as well as the associated traffic management plans that were required during a busy bank holiday in Ballina. On Monday the first burst occurred at 7am on the Cathedral Road and Abbey Street junction. A plan was put into action to feed the majority of affected customers by diverting water via the Bunree Road. At 11am on the same day a second burst occurred at Bachelor’s Walk which was attended to immediately and repaired by 4pm.
On Tuesday morning at approximately 6am a third burst occurred on the main on the Bunree Road that was supplying the diverted water to customers affected by the Cathedral Road and Abbey Street burst. This led to disruptions to supply in Abbey Street, Church Road, Bonniconlon Road, Attymass, Bunree, and surrounding areas. All three bursts have been repaired with water restored to the remaining 70 to 80 houses that were without water overnight at 9am on Wednesday. Irish Water and Mayo County Council said they "would like to apologise to customers affected by these unplanned bursts. Crews have worked hard since early Monday morning to complete repairs. All available resources were utilised to minimise disruption and tankers were put in place to provide an alternative water supply for anyone without a water supply. Vulnerable customers were prioritised and supplied with water."
