Burst main leaves sewage on the street

March 2004

Point Road residents near the military barracks get a rude awakening when gardaí knock on their doors to tell them their homes are in danger of being flooded by raw sewerage.

The warning that a burst main is causing a torrent of sewerage to flow down the street past a terrace of red brick houses comes as the people are sleeping.

Martin McCabe says panic ensued at 3.30am when they realised that the water was flowing outside their doors.

‘We tried to get in touch with the council. Eventually we did manage to get sandbags thanks to the army,’ he explains.

While the water didn’t enter his house, it did flow into the garage, leaving an unmistakable odour.

He says that the sewerage and water came down the street in bursts and was at least a foot deep in places.

He recalls that about two hours before the alarm was raised he felt the house shudder but didn’t think anything of it and went back to sleep. He now believes that must have been vibrations from the main bursting.

A spokesman for Dundalk Town Council says that a pressurised main which carries sewerage from a pumping station at St Helena Park to the wastewater treatment plant at Soldiers’ Point burst outside the cattle mart on Saturday evening.

‘ The pipe was shut down and repairs carried out on Monday, and it was put back in service the following day,’ says Peter McVeigh, of the engineering department.

However, the pipe burst again around 1am on Wednesday and the resultant flooding was much worse than on the previous occasion.

Mr McVeigh continues that once more repairs were carried out and it may well be that the quite old mains will have to be replaced.