The railway line between Limerick City and Ennis Co Clare has reopened - with a restricted service due to the current public health emergency.
The line was closed in February due to flooding at Ballycar close to Ballycar Lough where flooding has closed the line for up to 20 weeks at a time in recent years.
Irish Rail raised the track level by 60 centimetres at Ballycar as far back as 2003 to mitigate against the effects of flooding. However , this year flood waters reached one metre above the track.
Ballycar Lough and its environs lie within a geological and hydrogeological environment where the underlying limestone rock and thin covering of soil and bedrock combine to produce a shallow network of springs, turloughs and disappearing streams.
The causes of flooding at Ballycar Lough are mainly the prolonged sustained rainfall in Ballycar Lough catchment and the slow outflow stream of Ballycar Lough located between the swallow hole and the spring.
Work is ongoing on a feasibility study to explore engineering solutions to further defend the line against flooding.
