Louise Young and her parents Herbert and Valerie Stanley have spent their farming lives moving cows across the main Rathdowney road in Baunoge Townland, Co Laois. Their farm is divided in half by the R433 road which is a very busy stretch, especially in the mornings and evenings, as people make their way to and from work and school.

When the 170 dairy cows were grazing on the opposite side of the road to the parlour, at least three people were needed to get cows across safely. The width of the road, the increasing traffic, the speed some cars travelled at and less help available was making the job of crossing cows progressively worse.

“It was just getting harder and harder to get cows across the road. The stress and worry was too much so we had to do something,” explained Louise. She decided an underpass was the only solution and with the help of her planner submitted a planning application to Laois County Council in April 2016.

“We submitted the first planning application with the minimal number of culverts needed,” said Louise.

She said this initial application was rejected because the county council wanted more safety features such as crash barriers.

Louise hired the services of a road engineer and together with her planner they drew up new plans which included extra culverts and two concrete safety walls. This new plan was accepted by the county council in December 2016. The extra culverts extend 7m from the edge of the road into the field which adds to the safety of the development. I didn’t want to erect crash barriers because I thought they would become an eyesore and would probably have a more limited lifespan compared to walls,” she explained. They were also costly at approximately €12,000.

The tunnel

Croom Concrete was given the contract by Louise to organise and project manage the complete underpass works on her farm. Paul Murphy from Croom explains that they can organise the complete package for the farmer, from applying for planning permission, submitting road opening/closing licences, organising traffic plans and diversions, full civil package, culvert installation work, road reinstatement and full project supervision at all stages.

Croom has its own in-house structural engineers who can sign off on all aspects of the project, from road safety audits to method/safety statement documentation, certification and insurance.

In this situation, planning permission was already secured so Croom took over from there. To kick off the process, Paul said an application was made to the road management office for a road opening and a road closing licence. This application process takes six weeks before work can start on the road.

The dates outlining the planned closure of the road had to be advertised twice in the local paper before work commenced to give adequate notice to locals of the road closure. A traffic management plan was also negotiated with the county council and signage was erected one week before excavation to warn road users of the closure.

Louise also called local businesses and schools to give them further advanced warning to ensure they were aware of the plans. One stipulation of the planning permission was that an archaeologist must be on site while an excavation was taking place. This was because the remnants of a ringfort was adjacent to the site where the new underpass was going to be positioned.

A trial hole was dug out in the field adjacent to the road to establish what type of soil they were dealing with and to ensure the ground was not rocky. The archaeologist was also on site to monitor work. When all excavation was complete, she drew up a monitoring report and this report was sent to the county council as well as the Department of Heritage and the National Museum.

The road was closed on Monday 24 April and it reopened Friday 28 April. “Digging started on Monday afternoon after diversions were fully set up. By Tuesday afternoon, the culverts were being dropped in with the crane so it wasn’t long coming together,” explained Louise.

The excavated soil was moved to fill hollows in fields. The total depth was approximately 13ft. The base where the culverts were positioned was levelled off with 804 crushed stone and this was topped off with finer grade stone.

Eleven precast concrete culverts were used, which means the total length of the tunnel is 22m. Each culvert comes in 2m sections. The male and female grooving on alternate sides of the culvert sections means each culvert fits securely into the other. The culverts are 3.6m wide and 2.1m high (internal dimensions) and each section weighs 14.5t.

When the culverts were all positioned, a 100mm screed of concrete was laid on the floor of the tunnel with a ribbed finish to prevent cows slipping. There is a 350-gallon sump tank at one end of the culvert to collect effluent and rain water which is piped away separately to a soakaway. A sealant was used to waterproof the area where each culvert meets and a membrane was laid on top of all the culverts to prevent further leakage.

The gap outside the box walls was backfilled with 15N lean-mix concrete. Overhead, the header walls at the side of the road which are precast were lifted into position. These are L-shaped/free standing and sit on top of the box culverts.

The big benefit of using all precast items is that all pieces can be installed on the one day, massively reducing the duration of the project .

The base section (.6m) of these units holds in the stone 804 material under the road surface, and the clay verges of the road.

The top part of the structure rises at least 1.2m above the road surface as a safety wall in which an earthen bund can be placed to prevent a vehicle skidding off the road. Five inches of tar was laid in line with the existing road surface after the 804 hardcore was fully compacted with a roller.

The freshly laid tar was then painted with new road markings and the road was opened again for public use on Friday morning 28 April.

Precast wing walls were also added at the ends of the underpass to contain the backfilling material. Local man Pat Fogarty designed steel brackets that were bolted to these wing walls so electric wire could be strained off the wall itself.

Interestingly, the ramp leading from the underpass to the yard was concreted. Oldtown Construction did this work and erected block stub walls either side leaving a neat finish. They also drilled holes into these blocks so that temporary fencing posts could be erected easily on both sides of the ramp – at this depth it would be very difficult to drive timber stakes.

“I wanted a concrete road here because it would be more straightforward to scrape the base of the culverts clean and any muck could be cleaned back to the yard,” explained Louise. She also got FRS, the fencing contractors to fence off the new roadways leading to the underpass.

At the road, the wide verge was re-sown with grass seed and beech trees were sown beside the header walls. These trees will be pruned back and managed carefully to match the impressive beech hedge already in place, hiding the underpass from view. A service pipe was also installed so that water or electricity could be easily transferred from one side of the farm to the other.

Louise said the new underpass has made her life so much easier now. The main benefit is the peace of mind and that is worth a lot.

“I am not constantly worrying about car accidents now which is well worth the investment,” she explained.

There are other benefits too. “I don’t have to leave cows standing in the pen waiting an hour or more for the last cow to be milked and I am not relying on extra help to get cows across the road,” Louise added.

She said cows took a little while to get used to the underpass when it was new but they are very comfortable using it now. According to Louise, it cost approximately €80,000 including VAT to do all the work. She will get the VAT (13.5%) back.

Culverts cost anywhere from €1,100 to €2,500 per linear metre excluding VAT and cranage.

Some culverts require more steel reinforcement if a higher loading capacity is needed, which adds to the cost.

The cost of road closing and road opening licences varies between county councils, ranging from €1,200 to €3,000. It can cost from €2,000 to €5,000 for signage, road diversions and road reinstatement. Planning permission can cost over €2,000, including the planner’s fees.

Excavation and the transportation of excavated materials is also a significant cost.