Residents left fuming by ESB"s 'no warning" work on sub-station

A demand to the ESB to explain an incident in which its movement of heavy equipment to a sub-station at the weekend delayed residents" journeys for up to an hour in north Meath, has been made by Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee and residents of the area. Deputy McEntee said he was asking ESB chief executive Padraig McManus for an explanation for the weekend incident at Rathloghan, Kingscourt. Mr McEntee said that in the early hours of Saturday morning, five large articulated vehicles had arrived in the area carrying large electrical equipment. 'A crane was also used in the process to unload the trucks. The equipment was to be used to upgrade the existing sub-station at Rathloghan. The access road to this sub-station is a very narrow secondary route - certainly not suitable for vehicles of this size,' he said. Local residents were delayed for up to half an hour at a time - the time it took to offload the lorries, he added. The ESB has apologised for inconvenience caused to residents in the area. Deputy McEntee went on: 'Local Gardai were not notified about the operation and it was up to local people to set up a traffic light system and a detour had eventually to be put in place for people to get about their daily work. To make matters worse, the telephone wires and poles were brought down and people were left without their telephones.' He said he was asking the CEO of the ESB to explain why neither local residents nor the Gardai were notified. 'If they had, they would have had the full co-operation of locals. I visited the area twice during the day and locals are extremely annoyed about the situation.' He said that every effort had been made to contact the ESB 'to no avail.' He said he felt the ESB owed the local people in the district an explanation. The residents said in a statement that they were 'extremely annoyed' at the manner in which traffic had been disrupted in the Carrickleck to Kingscourt area. They said the road was blocked for extended periods from 6.30am to 7pm due to the heavy lifting crane on the road adjacent to the station and the unloading of large electrical plant. They said construction work had been going on at the station for some months. 'The road, which should have been closed for the duation of the works, had no traffic management plan in place on the day and the contractors themselves did not seem to know where to direct traffic to bypass the location,' the residents" statement went on. Locals had only become aware of the disruption when they approached traffic lights 50 metres from the site. It was later in the afternoon 'that any effort was made to redirect traffic at appropriate crossroads,' they said. The residents said that, by the afternoon, the situation had 'descended into a comedy of errors' arising from the absence of any logistical planning. 'In one incident, a large truck carrying a large item of equipment knocked a telegraph pole near Kingscourt, becoming entangled in cables. In another incident, a contractor"s truck reversed into a motor vehicle causing major damage,' the residents claimed. 'Earlier in the day, one truck had to reverse a mile back from the station into Kingscourt where it remained for the day.' They said that, in view of the opposition to the EirGrid plan to erecrt overhead power lines, the operation on Saturday had been 'a PR disaster'. They said questions were now being asked if upgrading works at this plant now constituted or was part of that programme, or if the new proposed station which was to have been constructed elsewhere was now being sited at this location at Rathloghan. A spokesman for the ESB said yesterday (Tuesday) that ESB Networks had engaged a private contractor for the delivery of new sub-station equipment at Rathloghan. 'The equipment is part of an essential upgrade at the sub-station. This is the usual method of delivery for large loads. It is the responsibility of the contractor to liaise with local Gardai on a traffic management plan during the delivery. ESB understands this was done in this case. During the course of delivery, a telecoms line was brought down by one of the high loads,' the ESB said. 'ESB Networks apologises for any inconvenience caused to residents in the area, and can confirm that the delivery of large equipment to the site has been completed,' he added.