Following JBA Consulting’s appointment, with JB Barry and Partners, as consultants to the design team for the Mountmellick Flood Relief Scheme, we are pleased to announce the first Public Engagement Day.  The event is to be held on Wednesday 13th November in the Mountmellick Development Association.  Further details of the event are available on the project website, www.mountmellickFRS.ie.

Mountmellick lies to the east of the Slieve Bloom Mountains and to the south of the River Barrow, within north County Laois.  A number of rivers pass through and around the town, making it vulnerable to flooding from the Owenass and Pound Rivers and their tributaries.  Very significant flooding occurred in November 2017, when the rivers burst their banks, causing flooding to property, roads and fields and necessitating the evacuation of a number of housing estates.

Although the OPW’s CFRAM Study, completed prior to the 2017 flood, identified Mountmellick as a town which would benefit from a flood relief scheme, the need and urgency for such as scheme has been brought into focus by the events of 22nd November.  As a result, Laois County Council have commissioned this OPW funded study.

The aim of the engagement day is to introduce the project team and to meet with residents,  business owners and other interested parties to gather details of past experiences of flooding in the town, and discuss opportunities and constraints for a scheme.

Other activities that are ongoing is the development of a hydraulic river model and assessment of the catchment hydrology.  A contractor has been appointed to carry out treatment of the Japanese Knotweed in the scheme area, and we are soon to appoint a topographic survey contractor.