Tralee Water Main Replacement - Racecourse Road

Uisce Éireann, in partnership with Kerry County Council, replaced problematic water mains and lead services on Racecourse Road, Tralee, to improve water quality and reduce high levels of leakage.

The programme to replace the water mains on the western end of Racecourse Road commenced in June. These works were carried out as part of Uisce Éireann's National Leakage Reduction Programme. The works were carried out on behalf of Uisce Éireann by Coffey Northumbrian Ltd. The construction of the new section of water main was expected to take 5 weeks. Following this, the service connections to each property were completed.

A Reliable Water Supply

• Replacing the old water mains with new water mains and service connections reduced the instances of bursts and water outages and ensured a reliable supply of water to customers in the area.

Reduced Leaks

• Replacement of old water mains and service connections in poor condition eliminated existing leaks and reduced the amount of clean drinking water lost into the ground.

Improved Water Quality

• Removing existing old cast iron and lead from the water network and replacing them with new plastic pipes reduced the risk of contamination.

Improved Operation and Maintenance

• These works delivered cost savings by providing improved water network operation that required less maintenance in the future.

• The works involved the replacement of over 200 metres of problematic cast iron water mains with polyethylene (plastic) pipes to tackle water quality issues and leakage, and the transfer of services to an existing 500m section of water main, decommissioning a total of 700m of problematic water mains.
• Once the new water main had been constructed and tested, the works also involved laying new water service connections from the public water main in the road to customers' property boundaries and connecting it to the customers' water supply.
• It was likely that the existing service connections on the public side were lead; these were replaced as part of this improvement work.