Alien beings on Strand Road

Strange appearances on strand road

The appearance of the now-infamous ‘Weird Poles’ on Strand Road has caused quite a stir around Sandymount. Just before Christmas they were erected along the sea front and sparked enough interest in one member of the public, David Reddy, to pose a question to his local newspaper as to their purpose and cost.

When numerous emails and phone-calls to various local groups and several departments within DCC all turned up nothing, it was beginning to look like the Orwellian-style conspiracy theories that had begun to be lightheartedly aired might hold some water after all.

The public and NewsFour alike were intrigued by these steel structures that have a strange resemblance to alien robot legs from a sci-fi movie; too tall to be a source of light for any terrain dwelling creature and slightly over-qualified to house a CCTV camera.

Finally, a spokesperson from DCC ended the speculation. “They were erected for real-time tide and flood monitoring. They will provide the Dublin City Council (DCC) incident management centre with live images of the tide levels, any flooding etc. and will enable a quicker and more focussed response from DCC in the event of weather incidents. They are being funded by the Office of Public Works and DCC. In normal day-to-day operation they will also be used for traffic monitoring but their prime objective is for flood incident management. There are already two in position at Clontarf and also at the Strand Road which are used for this purpose.”

For successful flood warning, the overall system must predict rainfall, high flows and surge tides accurately and with enough lead time to take action. However, apart from this statement, background information on any research, planning, strategy or indeed feedback on effectiveness has remained sparse. Therefore, NewsFour would like to give the floor to our readers and offer the opportunity to get involved if any details become available. NewsFour will become more interactive in the coming months so get involved with Facebook and Twitter.

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By Maria Shields O’Kelly