The new €11.4m Mullingar sewerage improvement scheme came online this week, two months ahead of schedule, and will now tie in with the recently completed €28.4m treatment plant in Clonmore.
The scheme has seen four kilometres of 600mm to1,800mm (2-6ft ) pipes laid under the town since the project began in August 2008, with the only major disruption being the crossing on Austin Friar Street between Buckley’s car park and the town park last year.
The previous system was pushed to breaking point and operated at 104 per cent of its capacity for the greater Mullingar area. The new system can cater for more than two and a half times that and will not reach 100 per cent capacity until the population of Mullingar reaches 55,000.
“The purpose of this interceptor sewer is twofold in that it will provide for the future needs of Mullingar while also relieving the already congested system,” said cathaoirleach Fintan Cooney who performed the official opening.
“In the older part of the system the storm drains were connected to the sewer and during times of heavy rainfall the wastewater would overflow into the river Brosna. The new interceptor will eliminate these spillages.”
This will be the first time in 300 years that the highly under-appreciated Brosna will be given a chance to operate as nature intended, as a salmonite river rather than as an open sewer. A knock-on improvement is quickly expected for Lough Ennell in fishery terms.
Another beneficial side-effect of the project to the town of Mullingar was the replacement of the Springfield tunnel, as the council and contracting engineers Pierce felt it best to include this piece of infrastructure when putting the 1,800mm pipe under the canal to Robinstown with a first cut in the Royal canal since 1820.
The drilling was facilitated by digging three, five-metre deep pits around the town, lifting in the drilling machine and, with the aid of laser guidance, pointing it towards the next pit with an accuracy of within five millimetres (0.2ins ). Of the four kilometres of pipeline, 734m was tunnelled.
The whole scheme extends from Robinstown in the north of the town to the 6,000 cubic metre holding tank off the Lynn Road in the south. From here, the primary-treated wastewater has only 200m to travel to the new treatment plant in Clonmore where it receives two more levels of treatment removing all phosphates before being returned at above EU standards to the water courses.
All the work was funded by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, as well as from development levies claimed off local projects by Westmeath County Council over the last number of years.
