From this week’s Galway City Tribune Several newly-installed footpaths and resurfaced streets ‘back the West’ may need to be redone because they were undermined at several locations by subsequent pipe-laying works.

Galway City Council warned Uisce Éireann of the “serious financial and reputational damage” that would arise if Raleigh Row had to be “planned out and resurfaced again”.

The local authority blasted Uisce Éireann after new footpaths and imprinted asphalt surfacing at Raleigh Row was “undermined” at several locations by the water utility.

The Council’s contractors installed new footpaths and asphalt streets as part of its Safe Routes to School project at Scoil Iognáid (Jes primary school).

Some €300,000 was paid by the National Transport Authority (NTA) to Galway City Council in 2023 to progress the project last autumn.

After new footpaths and resurfacing was completed, Uisce Éireann workers moved into the area and dug up the street – causing damage to the new footpaths and surface, according to the Council.

The utility described this as “planned watermain rehabilitation works” carried out under the national Leakage Reduction Programme.

It involved laying new pipes connecting to homes on Raleigh Row, but Galway City Council said the newly laid footpaths and street surface that it had installed weeks previously was damaged during the Uisce Éireann work.

The City Council criticised Uisce Éireann in correspondence released to Galway City Tribune under Freedom of Information (FOI).
This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article, see the February 9 edition of the Galway City Tribune. You can support our journalism and buy a digital edition HERE.