-
Waterways and Means by Brian J Goggin available now -
Join 552 other subscribers
RSS links
Pages
- Waterways & past uses
- Saving the nation
- Turf and bog navigations
- The Bog of Allen from the Grand Canal in 1835
- John’s Canal, Castleconnell
- The Canal at the World’s End
- The Finnery River navigation
- The Lough Boora Feeder
- The Little Brosna
- The Lullymore canal as wasn’t
- The Roscrea canals
- The Monivea navigations
- Lacy’s Canal
- The Rockville Navigation page 1
- The Rockville Navigation page 2
- The Rockville Navigation page 3
- Rockingham
- The Colthurst canals
- The Inny navigation
- The lower Shannon
- The piers, quays and harbours of the Shannon Estuary
- Nimmo’s non-existent harbour
- The Doonbeg Ship Canal
- Querrin
- Kilrush and its sector lock
- The Killimer to Tarbert ferry
- The Colleen Bawn at Killimer
- Knock knock. Who’s there?
- Cahircon: not at all boring
- Ringmoylan
- The hidden quay of Latoon
- The stones of Kilteery
- The Maigue
- Sitting on the dock of the Beagh
- Massy’s Quay, Askeaton and the River Deel
- Saleen Pier
- The Lord Lieutenant’s Visit to Limerick — trip down the Shannon [1856]
- The Fergus
- The Limerick Navigation
- The boundaries of the Shannon
- The power of the Shannon
- The locks on the Limerick Navigation
- Plassey
- Worldsend, Castleconnell, Co Limerick
- The bridge at O’Briensbridge
- The Limerick Navigation and the Monmouthshire Canal
- The Limerick Navigation (upper end) in flood November 2009
- The Limerick Navigation (lower end) in flood November 2009
- The Limerick Navigation (tidal section) in flood November 2009
- Floods in Limerick (1850)
- Limerick to Athlone
- The piers, quays and harbours of the Shannon Estuary
- The middle and upper Shannon
- The Grand Canal
- Monasterevan, the Venice of the west
- The Grand Canal lottery
- Grand Canal carrying: some notes
- The dry dock at Sallins
- The Naas Branch
- The Mountmellick Line of the Grand Canal
- Dublin to Ballinasloe by canal
- The Ballinasloe Line
- A Grand Canal lock: Belmont
- South of Moscow, north of Geneva
- Water supply to the Grand Canal
- The Grand Canal Company strike of 1890
- The Royal Canal
- Water supply to the Royal Canal: the feeders
- The Lough Owel feeder
- The proposed Lough Ennell water supply to the Royal Canal
- From Clonsilla to Clew Bay
- Kinnegad and the Royal Canal
- The sinking of the Longford in 1845
- Steamers on the Royal Canal
- Leech of Killucan: horse-drawn boats on the Royal
- Horses on board
- Royal eggs
- Prothero on the Royal
- The whore who held the mortgage on the Royal Canal
- Waterways in Dublin
- The Naller
- Visit Dublin. Walk canals. Drink beer.
- The Broadstone Line of the Royal Canal
- Effin Bridge: its predecessors
- Between the waters
- The abandoned Main Line of the Grand Canal 1
- The abandoned Main Line of the Grand Canal 2
- The abandoned Main Line of the Grand Canal 3
- The abandoned Main Line of the Grand Canal 4
- Waterways of the south-east
- Waterways of Cork and Kerry
- Waterways of the west
- Waterways of Ulster and thereabouts
- People
- Systems & artefacts
- Irish waterways furniture
- Irish waterways operations
- Miscellaneous articles
- Irish inland waterways vessels
- Cots -v- barges: defining Irish waterways
- Waterways Ireland workboats
- Wooden boats on Irish inland waterways
- Traditional boats and replicas
- Non-WI workboats
- Older Irish working boats
- The barge at Plassey
- Dublin, Athlone and Limerick
- Waterford to New Ross by steam
- The steamer Cupid
- Liffey barges 1832
- Steam on the Grand Canal
- The Mystery of the Sunken Barge
- Steam on the Newry Canal
- Guinness Liffey barges 1902
- Up and under: PS Garryowen in 1840
- Watson’s Double Canal Boat
- The Cammoge ferry-boat
- The ’98 barge
- Late C19 Grand Canal Company trade boats
- Chain haulage
- Ballymurtagh
- The Aaron Manby and the Shannon
- A sunken boat in the Shannon
- Sailing boats on Irish inland waterways
- Some boats that are … different
- Square sail
- 4B mooring
- Irish waterways scenery
- Engineering and construction
- Irish navigation authorities
- Opinion
- The folly of restoration
- The Ulster Canal now
- The Ulster Canal 00: overview
- The Ulster Canal 01: background
- The Ulster Canal 02: the southern strategic priority
- The Ulster Canal 03: implementation
- The Ulster Canal 04: Ulster says no
- The Ulster Canal 05: studies and appraisals
- The Ulster Canal 06: the costs
- The Ulster Canal 07: the supposed benefits
- The Ulster Canal 08: the funding
- The Ulster Canal 09: affordability
- The Ulster Canal 10: kill it now
- The Ulster Canal 11: some information from Waterways Ireland (and the budget)
- The Ulster Canal 12: departmental bullshit
- The Ulster Canal 13: an investment opportunity?
- The Ulster Canal 14: my search for truth
- The Ulster Canal 15: spinning in the grave
- The Ulster Canal 16: looking for a stake
- The Ulster Canal 17: the official position in November 2011
- The Ulster Canal 18: Sinn Féin’s canal?
- The Ulster Canal 19: update to February 2012
- The Ulster Canal 20: update to April 2013
- The Ulster Canal 21: update to August 2018
- The Barrow
- A bonfire at Collins Barracks
- Living on the canals
- Waterways tourism
- Guano
- The Park Canal: why it should not be restored
- The Park Canal 01: it says in the papers
- The Park Canal 02: local government
- The Park Canal 03: sinking the waterbus
- The Park Canal 04: the Limerick weir
- The Park Canal 05: cruisers from the Royal Canal
- The Park Canal 06: What is to be done? (V I Lenin)
- The Park Canal 07: another, er, exciting proposal
- Accounting for risk
- Tax-dodging boat-owners
- Rail
- Waterways & past uses
Blogroll
boats
- Canal steamers [UK]
- Chris Deuchar's boating page
- Douglas Self retrotech and steam
- Grace's Guide: British Industrial History
- Heritage Boat Association
- Historic Inland Working Boats
- Irish maritime history
- irish shipwrecks database
- Kilrush & District Historical Society
- Lough Corrib charts and scans
- Railway and Canal Historical Society
Book sales
Industrial heritage
Inland waterways
Ireland
Overseas
Seafaring
Sources
Tag Archives: Office of Public Works
Big it up for the OPW
I’ve just been reading some particularly nitwitted Dáil discussions and I need some time to calm down enough to report on them to the Learned Readers of this site. Let me just say that anyone who thinks that politicians cannot distinguish fact from fiction is absolutely right. But enough of that for the moment.
I reported earlier on an oddity in the results from the OPW’s Athlone waterlevel gauge. I emailed the OPW about it and a helpful chap got back on more or less immediately.
He explained that the data we see on the waterlevel.ie site is, as it were, live: raw unfiltered data with nothing added, nothing taken away. The same data goes in to the OPW and they spotted that the Athlone gauge was reading too high. They found the sensor was faulty; they have now adjusted it and the new, lower readings are correct.
The disappearance of the placenames is because of some work in progress on improving the website; they will be back.
He kindly pointed me to a list, in .xlsm format, downloadable from here; it shows all hydrometric stations in Ireland. It shows who operates them, whether they’re active and whether they use telemetry (which I take to mean that they can be monitored remotely). Unfortunately OPW itself doesn’t seem to have any gauges on Lough Derg and nor does Waterways Ireland. OPW does have a rather excitable gauge at Scarriff and gauges upstream of Meelick Weir and Meelick (Victoria) Lock. The ESB has gauges with telemetry at Ballyvalley (25073) and Killaloe (25074) but I can’t find any website giving the levels. If, Gentle Reader, you can find one, perhaps you would let us know.
The consoling part of dealing with the OPW is that you get the distinct impression that they know some useful stuff. Unlike, say, some folk working in Kildare Street ….
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Non-waterway, Operations, People, Politics, Safety, Shannon, Sources, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged Athlone, canal, Clare, Dublin, ESB, floods, flow, gauge, Ireland, Killaloe, Lough Derg, Meelick, Office of Public Works, Operations, OPW, Scarriff, Shannon, telemetry, Victoria Lock, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Thump it on the thirteenth
Here is a screenshot from the OPW’s online waterlevel gauge for Athlone Weir. It shows the levels for the past 35 days. In recent days the waterlevel website has ceased to show the names or locations of the gauges, but 26333 is Athlone Weir.
Athlone waterlevel: 35 days to 14 February 2014
Note the odd discontinuities: the level jumped up on 13 February and fell back on 13 February. Does the gauge get stuck every so often and have to be thumped to free it?
I do not know. I have reported both the discontinuities and the disappearance of the station names to the OPW.
Posted in Ashore, Built heritage, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Industrial heritage, Ireland, Operations, Safety, Shannon, Sources, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged Athlone, floods, flow, gauge, Ireland, lock, Office of Public Works, Operations, Shannon, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland, weir
Lowering Lough Ree
I reported in October and in November on the lowering of the level of Lough Ree, in advance of heavy rain, to see whether that would help to manage flooding on the Shannon Callows further downstream.
The interim data from the experiment is available on the OPW website here [seven-page PDF]. The conclusion is:
Conclusion
From the water level records, it is apparent that the closing of the gates at Athlone weir in anticipation of a rise in water levels on Lough Ree led to a temporary lowering of the Shannon water levels immediately downstream of Athlone. This possibly delayed inundation of the Shannon callows downstream of Athlone by a number of days. To determine whether the extent or depth of eventual inundation was in any way reduced by the experiment will require more detailed analysis by the CFRAM consultants. Data is available on request from Hydrometric Section if required.
It should be stressed that this is an interim report. This CFRAM background document [PDF] is still useful.
It is not clear to me why the state should spend any money improving the value of privately owned riverside land that is of marginal benefit to the economy.
Posted in Ashore, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Shannon, Sources, The cattle trade, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged Athlone, callows, CFRAM, ESB, floods, flow, Ireland, Jacobs, Lough Ree, Office of Public Works, Operations, OPW, Shannon, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland
Cutting and pasting
One of the problems with all this newfangled technology is that some things — like, for instance, copying a block of text from one document into another – are so easy that folk may forget to check their work afterwards.
Consider, for instance, the Office of Public Works, which seems to have a block of boilerplate text ready for answering written boilerplate questions from midlands TDs who have discovered that things get wet when it rains.
On 22 January 2014 Denis Naughten [Ind, Roscommon/South Leitrim, which — let it be admitted — The Lord intended to be rather boggy and sad] had this question:
To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the steps being taken to address flood risks within the Shannon basin; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The answer tells Mr Naughten about CFRAM — nothing he didn’t know before he asked, I imagine — but it included this sentence:
On foot of discussions between my colleague, Minister of State Hayes and the IFA, and with the cooperation of both the ESB and Waterways Ireland, a water level monitoring exercise is being carried out as part of the CFRAM process which will allow for analysis of water flows and levels at key points around the Lough Ree and Callows areas.
The highlighting is mine: it seemed a bit odd because this written answer was allegedly being given by Mr Hayes.
Mr Naughten had another Q&A here, but it’s not very interesting.
Posted in Ashore, Drainage, Economic activities, Engineering and construction, Extant waterways, Ireland, Irish waterways general, Natural heritage, Operations, People, Politics, Shannon, Sources, The cattle trade, waterways, Waterways management, Weather
Tagged boats, CFRAM, ESB, floods, flow, Ireland, Office of Public Works, OPW, Shannon, water level, waterways, Waterways Ireland, weir
Irish waterways history 