Buncrana Harbour to be dredged in April as council seeks contractors

Donegal County Council is seeking a contractor to carry out dredging works at Buncrana Harbour to improve access for vessels using the pier.

The council has issued a tender for the removal of silt and sand from the harbour’s access channel using a plough dredging technique.

Buncrana Harbour is known to be particularly shallow, with access difficulties arising at low water even for shallow-draught vessels. At low tides, the RNLI all-weather lifeboat is required to moor away from the pier, with crew transferring by rigid inflatable boat (RIB), while ferry sailings have also been disrupted during the summer months due to the build-up of silt.

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The proposed dredging works will begin at the RNLI berth at the pier and extend approximately 70 metres beyond the pier head. A navigation channel 10 metres wide at the base, dredged to a depth of minus 1.5 metres, with 30-degree side slopes, will be created.

Up to 8,000 tonnes of material may be removed as part of the works, although the council has indicated that the full allowance is unlikely to be required. Dredged material will be dumped further out into Lough Swilly, in line with a licence issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The dredging programme is scheduled to be carried out in two ten-day phases during April, with an interval between each phase to allow for surveys to assess progress. Pre- and post-dredge surveys will be undertaken by Donegal County Council to establish the extent and location of dredging works, including areas at the pier, the slipway and the channel to the south-west of the pier.

The estimated value of the contract is €50,000, with tenders required to be submitted by 25 February.

The works will be carried out under an Environmental Protection Agency dumping at sea permit granted in July 2018, which authorises the disposal of up to 8,000 tonnes of dredged material annually - 64,000 tonnes over an eight-year period - from Buncrana Harbour.

That permit was obtained following a delay to dredging works in 2018 after the previous EPA licence had lapsed, resulting in the council missing the usual spring dredging window that year.