Risk-reducing measures such as the closure of the coastal road linking Pollathomas with Inver during torrential rain have been recommended by a firm of engineers who have completed a review into last year's devastating landslides in Co Mayo. Tom Shiel reports.
Tobin Consulting Engineers, Castlebar, has also advised that Mayo County Council enters into an agreement with Met Éireann to be informed when any intense rainfall is predicted for the Belmullet area.
Ongoing monitoring of the disturbed deposits on the slopes of Dooncarton mountain indicate continuing movement, according to the Tobin report, which poses a risk of further land slippages.
In its report, Tobin warns that while the rainfall which caused the initial event was extreme, the destabilisation of remaining deposits is such that less extreme rainfall carries the risk of mobilising larger masses of material.
Tobin Engineers has advised against technical options which attempt to anchor and stabilise material in place because of the nature of the overburden and the ability of peat to creep around restraints.
The firm has recommended the construction of earthen berms, where appropriate, and kinetic energy absorbing rock-anchored barriers elsewhere to control the "inevitable" movement of disturbed material.
According to Tobin, the permanent kinetic energy barriers would cost just over €1.5 million; infrastructural works, including repairs to Pollathomas graveyard as well as roads and bridges, would cost €2.8 million, while earthworks and arterial drainage is estimated at €686,000.
Mr Peter Hynes, director of services with Mayo County Council, said yesterday that three families had been unable to return to their homes following the landslides last September 19th.
These families had been availing of emergency quarters and the long-term hope was that suitable more permanent accommodation could be found for them, Mr Hynes stated.
Damage to headstones and the walls of the graveyard is being repaired at a cost of approximately €60,000.
There will be no charge to relatives of those buried in the cemetery.
Mayo County Council and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs are funding the restoration.
Mr Hynes said it was hoped to have as much as possible of the restoration work completed on the first anniversary of the landslides when the cemetery will be rededicated.