Irish Water and Laois County Council are to carry out essential water mains replacement works in Abbeyleix and Portlaoise next week.
The company say the works are necessary to improve the security of supply and reduce high levels of leakage in the areas.
The works, which are scheduled to begin on Monday April 12, will involve the replacement of almost 300 meters of old problematic water mains in Colliers Lane, Portlaoise and over 1.5km of old cast iron water mains in Tonduff in Abbeyleix.
The pipes will be replaced with new, high density polyethylene (plastic) pipes which will improve water quality and reduce high levels of leakage which was impacting the water supply to customers in these areas.
The works will also involve laying new water service connections from the public water main in the road to customers’ property boundaries and connecting it to the customer’s water supply.
Where the existing service connections on the public side are lead, these will be replaced as part of this improvement work.
To facilitate the safe delivery of these works, traffic management will be in place.
In Tonduff, the L-1656 road will be closed from April 19 to May 7 and the L-6717 road will be closed from May 4 to May 21.
The works will be carried out on behalf of Irish Water by Ward and Burke Ltd. and are expected to be completed by the end of April in Colliers Lane and by the end of May in Tonduff.
To date, Irish Water and Laois County Council have saved over 6 million litres of water daily across Laois, that’s enough water to supply over 46,000 people per day, as a result of leakage reduction and repair works in several towns and villages across the county.
This has significantly reduced the number of bursts and water outages, resulting in a more reliable water supply for homes and business in Laois.
Speaking about the project, Joe Carroll, Irish Water, said: “We understand that this type of work can be inconvenient and will ensure our work crews make every effort to minimise any disruption these works may cause.
“We would like to thank the local community, businesses, homeowners and commuters for their patience and cooperation while we deliver these vital water network improvement improvement works to safeguard the water supply in Laois.”
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