OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF PUBLIC WORKS.
SI 9 before whom these cases were tried last sessions, effectually undeceived the claimants, by Appendix (E.)
dismissing their applications on the merits.
The annual schedule of expenditure required by the Board is forwarded herewith, as ^"ual Report of
works referred to in this report as having been g^ District'' also various tracings explanatory of the executed up to the close of 1851
Engineer.
Galway and Mayo.
Gahoay.
Galway, Galway,
Engineer.
Extract from the Annual Report of Mr.
Samuel U.
Roberts, C.E.,
District Engineer.
Extract from the
On the Districts of Annual Report of Lough Corvib ---Galway and Mayo.
Mr.
S.
U.
Roberts, Turloughmorc ---n^.J,.
* C.E.,
District Lavally -
and Dunkellin -
For the year 1851.
Dated 30th January 1852.
Drainage, Navigation, and Mill-power.
District of Lough Corrib, Counties of Gahoay and Mayo.
Preliminary Observations.
The works in this district,—undertaken with the threefold object, improvement of drainage, navigation, and mill-power,—have been carried on during the past year with the greatest vigour local circumstances would admit, aided considerably by a dry and favourable season.
The principal seats of operation have been at Galway, Menlo, Claregalway, and Cong, each of which localities forms a separate division of the district.
No.
1, or Galway Division.
The accompanying plan, No.
], illustrates in a general manner the nature of the pro¬ posed works in this the most important part of the district.
They consist of an entire and complete remodelling of the drainage, mill-power, and fisheries of Galway, together with the formation of a navigable communication between Lough Corrib and the sea; a work involving so many conflicting interests that great difficulty has been experienced, not only in the designing and arrangement of the improvements, but more particularly in their execution.
This difficulty may be better understood on reference to the plan, when it will be ob¬ served that the Galway River is divided into four branches, each conveying power to a flight or succession of mills, many of which are dependent on those immediately above them for their supply, and so suited to the original circumstances of the river that any diversion of its water from one branch to another would be attended with serious injury.
On the main channel there is also a valuable salmon and eel fishery which it has been necessary to maintain, and throughout the course of the river in its several branches the waters have been applied to domestic purposes, or used for flushing sewers, at levels unsuited to the improvements.
To have taken up the execution of the measure boldly, and diverted the entire body of the river, would have been fraught with serious injury to the milling interest, which forms an important branch of trade in the locality, and would be attended with claims for com¬ pensation that would have swamped the undertaking.
It has therefore been necessary to execute the works in more minute divisions, and by careful and well-considered arrange¬ ments to guard against loss to individuals, and consequent claims on the district for compensation.
This mode of operation has been carried out, and though the water has been diverted partially from one branch of the river to another, and such arrangements made as were necessary to carry on the works, it has been admitted by the mill owners and occupiers, with scarcely a single exception, that they have been rather benefited than otherwise during their progress.
I should also advert to another difficulty, arising in the execution of so vast an amount of work in the very centre of a thickly-populated town ;—the want of space for the deposit of spoil, the difficulty in carrying on blasting operations, the expenses of main¬ taining the traffic in the different thoroughfares intersected, the necessity of guards and watchmen by night and day to prevent either theft or damage, and the close vicinity of lofty and ill-constructed buildings to the excavations.
I refer to this matter more particularly and at length, not to magnify the difficulties which have presented themselves, but to explain that under other circumstances a great portion of the Galway works might have been finished at an earlier period.
River Corrib.
The principal drainage work consists of the deepening of the main channel of the river from the tideway below "West Bridge to deep water above Nunn's Island, together with the construction of a regulating weir at the head of the new channel.
This work involved the rebuilding of the West Bridge, the reconstruction of the salmon weir, and the underpinning of the new bridge.
The excavation during the past year has beenextended from the Woolfactory tail race, the termination of last season's work, up to the site of the proposed regulating weir, though not for the entire breadth of the channel.
t
The execution of this work was rendered intricate, as I before adverted to, by the neces¬ sity of maintaining the salmon and eel fishery, and also the required power to the mills on the eastern side of the river, and at the same time to prevent the accumulation of water in
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