Two County Cork villages are set to benefit from an improved water supply thanks to upcoming upgrades.

Irish Water and Cork County Council are replacing 3.75km of problematic watermains in Kilpatrick and Ballyclough, beginning in mid-August as part of the utility's National Leakage Reduction Programme. The works will also involve laying new water service connections from the public water main in the road to customers' property boundaries and connecting it to the customers' water supply.

The works, being carried out by Ward and Burke Limited on behalf of Irish Water, will take place between the cross at Ballyclough and the T-junction approximately 500m west of Knocknagore/Dromineen. Works are scheduled on the L5310, L5308 and L53081 roads and expected to be completed by late October.

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Outlining the benefits the mains replacement will bring, Paul Moroney from Irish Water, explained: "Replacement of the old watermains and service connections will reduce the instances of bursts, water outages, and will ensure a reliable supply of water to customers and local businesses in the area.

"To facilitate the safe delivery of the upgrades, there will be some traffic management in place, however, local and emergency access will be maintained at all times.

"Works will be limited to short sections to minimise any impact on customers. During this project there may be some short-term water outages and the project team will ensure that customers are given a minimum of 48 hours' notice before any planned water outages.

"We understand that road works and water outages can be inconvenient, but our crews will make every effort to minimise disruption to local communities as we continue to improve the water supply in Cork and progress the National Leakage Reduction Programme."

To complete the works in a safe and efficient manner, several road closures are required over the construction timeline. The road closure times, granted by Cork County Council in conjunction with An Garda Síochána, are expected to be in place for 24-hours a day on the below dates:

• L5310 - 8am on Monday, 29 August to 6pm on Friday, 16 September.

• L5308 - 8am on Monday, 12 September to 6pm on Friday, 14 October.

• L53081- 8am on Monday, 10 October to 6pm on Friday, 04 November.

Diversions will be signposted on approach.