Here’s the news from Dublin Port Company re the repairs to the Bullock piers.
The repair works to the damaged quay wall caused by Storm Emma on the Eastern end of the pier are now complete. This area is now open to the public once more.
The completion of the works in this area was delayed for two main reasons: first the works being in a tidal zone, as well as poor weather over the winter and spring, resulted in many days being lost where grouting work could not be carried out. Secondly, midway through those repair works on the Eastern end, focus was moved to the Western end of the pier where the corner cope stones at the exit from the harbour had further subsided to such an extent that they were in danger of possibly collapsing into the sea. To address this additional challenge, all work on the Eastern end of the pier was halted temporarily while the cope stones were, firstly numbered and then, removed from the Western end. The numbering was deemed essential as it would make relocating each stone in its correct original position easier. (There was no stone numbering of the cope stones on Eastern end of the pier prior to Storm Emma, thus making the relocation process there slow and tedious.) While removing these cope stones on the Western end it was discovered that earlier repairs had been attempted a number of years ago to address the subsidence. It was discovered that concrete had been poured into the stone fill behind the cope stones, as well as in and around the cope stones themselves, which in turn slowed down the entire operation of removing the stones.
Following the removal of the cope stones substantial underwater works took place to stabilise the stone fill material and to build a new foundation under the quay wall down to bed rock. While these underwater works were taking place at the Western end of the pier, the final stones were replaced at the Eastern end of the pier with the final grouting taking place this week. The next phase over the month of August (after the builders holidays) on the Western end is to relay the bottom two course of stones underwater by divers and then to rebuild the rest of the cope stones back to their original position and replace the original fill material.
Dublin Port Company is aware of the disruption caused to so many people while these repair works have been done over the past number of months. However you will appreciate the problems were caused by factors outside our control and we are endeavouring to have the harbour repaired as quickly as possible so as its many users can enjoy it once more.
Bullock Harbour 