Designing a new water intake and treatment plant for Galway City

Galway City Water Intake Works

Constructed in the 1860s, the raw water intake for Galway City’s water supply was located on the Terryland River, off the main River Corrib. Nearly 160 years later, Galway City Council set out to identify a new intake location for the Terryland Water Treatment Plant (WTP). After we worked with the council to determine a new site, Uisce Éireann commissioned us to carry out detailed design and secure planning for the works, which they extended through the contract documents, tender, and construction stages.

Delivering major civil engineering works in this urban riparian setting presented a complex project management environment and required significant coordination efforts due to multiple competing constraints and affected parties. From early in our commission, we liaised with Galway City Council, Inland Fisheries Ireland, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Corrib Navigation Trustees, Office of Public Works, University of Galway, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, and Galway Rowing Club to identify possible risks to their interests. Early collaboration meant mitigation measures could be in-built from the very beginning of the optioneering and design stages, thereby providing the most effective outcomes and project success.

The project scope included a new raw water intake structure on the riverbank and transfer main between the intake and existing raw water transfer mains, which included a tunnel section under the N6 road in the suburbs of Galway City and open cut excavation under the Terryland River channel. It also included mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, control, and automation (MEICA) equipment such as penstocks, fine screens with fish return, and fish deterrent systems. Ancillary works included a control building, access road, parkland landscaping, and new slipway.

Today, the new intake and related works at Terryland WTP provide a safe, secure, and sustainable supply for the current abstraction of 55 megalitres per day, or MLD (15 million gallons per day, or MGD), with capacity for the city’s future demand of 90 MLD (24 MGD).