County: Laois Site name: Portarlington to Athy
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0691
Author: Bernice Molloy, Margaret Gowen & Co Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Monitoring
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 653631m, N 712283m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.158340, -7.198085
Monitoring took place of the groundworks for a gas feeder and distribution main that ran between Portarlington, Co. Laois, through the town of Monasterevin and into the town of Athy, Co. Kildare, on behalf of Bord Gáis Éireann. Desktop assessment reports noted that the buffer zones of any RMP sites were predominantly located a distance from the proposed pipeline. There were two exception to this: an enclosure and field system site located within the townland of Srowland (KD035–0401–02), and the zone of archaeological potential around Athy town (KD035:022). Monitoring was undertaken between May 2008 and January 2009.
The feeder main between the eastern side of Portarlington and Monasterevin town was laid mainly within an open cut along the grass verge or along the existing road surface. The distribution and feeder main in the towns of Monasterevin and Athy were laid mainly along the road surface, in an open cut, except in instances were directional drilling was employed to go under services/culverts. Directional drilling was used mainly between Athy and Monasterevin. The trench width for both the feeder main and the distribution main generally varied between 0.5m and 0.75m and trench depth varied between 1m and 1.2m. Six sites were identified during the monitoring programme, all in the vicinity of Athy town. These consisted of three possible pit features (Sites A, B and C), a spread (Site D), a portion of wall (Site E) and a culvert (Site F).
