Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 February 2025
336. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to break down the individual costs contained in the €82,200 quoted for ancillary costs on the wall that was built around the WRC office. [3113/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra337. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to break down all the individual costs detailed in the initial quote for the €213,000 cost for the construction of the wall at the WRC office in Ballsbridge; if this figure included any car parking facilities for staff discommoded by the construction project. [3114/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra338. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform was the high-voltage live electricity cable, which delayed the works at the wall at the WRC office in Ballsbridge, contained in any ESB or other utility maps in the area. [3115/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra339. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to break down the €61,500 Dublin City Council costs. [3116/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra340. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform whether the construction of the wall at the offices of the WRC was tendered for directly by the OPW, or whether the service provider (details supplied) tendered for the job; the name of the company that won the tender and that delivered the job; the quantity surveyor that signed off on the job; whether that quantity surveyor was an OPW staff member or was a member of the service provider or another private firm. [3117/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra341. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to give a detailed breakdown of the services provided by the ESB for the €54,000 charged to the OPW. [3118/25]
Amharc ar fhreagra342. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform the accountability that will be imposed on the processes and individuals involved in the project to build a wall at the offices of the WRC in Ballsbridge. [3119/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 336 to 342, inclusive, together.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) is responsible for managing and maintaining a significant part of the State’s property portfolio including over 500 office buildings nationwide.
In fulfilling this remit in 2021 an on-site building inspection of a Government owned office building at Lansdowne House in Dublin 4 was carried out. During this inspection, the OPW found that a boundary wall was unsafe and in imminent danger of collapse and would have to be dismantled. The boundary wall was fenced off as a temporary measure, and made safe and a project was initiated to dismantle and reconstruct the wall.
This project was however complicated by the discovery of a high voltage electrical cable beneath the wall which represented a significant hazard if not dealt with in the appropriate manner.
The OPW is satisfied that the correct processes were followed by the project team in the course of this project and in particular in the response to the discovery of the high voltage cable. While this discovery resulted in significant delays and additional costs, the OPW were obliged to address the health and safety risks posed by the discovery of the high-voltage and dangerous live cable. The OPW is also satisfied that their staff and contractor acted appropriately in the particular circumstances that arose in this case. As the planned element of the works (reconstruction of the wall) was delivered in line with estimates the OPW considers that value for money was achieved.
The works to dismantle and reconstruct the wall were carried out under the OPW’s Multiparty Framework for Building Maintenance Services and General Building Works. Phase 1, the demolition of the existing wall, was carried out by PJ Hegarty Ltd who held the OPW contract at the time. Phase 2, the reconstruction of the replacement wall, was carried out by Sensori Facilities Management who then held the OPW contract for the Dublin South region. Quantity Surveying services were provided by Carron and Walsh who have been appointed by the OPW as Contractor Administrator to manage the Framework on their behalf.
The initial inspection by the OPW architect and engineer of the wall noted the absence of piers along the boundary. Given the appearance of the reconstructed wall was to remain unchanged, the engineer proposed the inclusion of additional steel structure within the new wall (to provide additional stability in the absence of traditional piers) and identified the requirement to design a new foundation, to form part of the reconstruction work. The existing wall was dismantled with all existing blockwork retained on site for reconstruction at a later date.
The cost of dismantling the wall was €21,500 ex VAT. The cost of rebuilding the wall was €180,000 ex VAT against an original estimate of €188,000 ex VAT as detailed in the table at Appendix A.
Prior to construction a Design Risk Assessment was undertaken by the design team to establish the location of utilities and services in and around the site. This included an inspection of utility maps and there was no evidence found of services underneath the perimeter wall on Lansdowne Park. In addition, and in accordance with good practice, prior to the contractor beginning the excavation for the new foundations, a ground penetrating radar scan was carried out around the site which showed a cable underneath the now-dismantled wall. The main contractor carefully uncovered the cable and notified the ESB who confirmed it was a live high-voltage power cable.
The discovery of the live cable posed a serious health and safety risk and led to very significant delays as well as increased costs to the overall project. Among the extra costs incurred were €54,000 to the ESB to redirect the live wire. This was the fee charged by the ESB to cover the costs associated with the diversion of the high voltage cable and the OPW was not provided with a further breakdown of the cost.
The payments made to Dublin City Council are costs associated with road closure licences, and recompense for fee paying parking spaces being taken out of commission for the duration of the works. The works were delayed by 20 months as a result of the discovery of the high voltage cable and road closure licence and the decommissioning of the car parking spaces had to be retained for this duration. This resulted in an average cost of €3075 per month. The wall could not be rebuilt without this area being taken into charge within the building site to facilitate the works.
The following table shows the breakdown of the ancillary costs amounting to €81,926.
|
- |
excl VAT |
|
Fencing & Traffic Management |
€73,632.47 |
|
Signage |
€7,738.00 |
|
Traffic Cones |
€555.55 |
|
Total |
€81,926.02 |
Appendix A. Breakdown of original cost estimate.
|
- |
- |
Sub-total |
|
- |
Excl. VAT |
Excl. VAT |
|
Wall reconstruction works |
||
|
New wall foundations |
||
|
Excavations |
€23,793.72 |
|
|
Concrete works |
€7,742.20 |
|
|
Steel reinforcement |
€6,887.70 |
€38,423.62 |
|
Rebuilding wall |
||
|
Wall reconstruction including manufacture of new blocks |
€29,467.52 |
|
|
New concrete capping's poured on-site |
€5,324.55 |
|
|
New structure within wall including stainless steel parapet wind posts, wall ties and notching of posts |
€30,114.11 |
€64,906.18 |
|
Groundworks either side of boundary wall |
||
|
Making good to carpark inside the site, public road and footpath on completion of works including line marking |
€15,680.85 |
|
|
Line marking |
€1,880.63 |
€17,561.48 |
|
Ancillary works |
||
|
Works to existing crash barriers to parking, gate and sign posts, including removal; storage and reinstating |
€4,665.00 |
|
|
Hoarding and traffic management |
€6,979.56 |
|
|
Estimate for Licencing of Temporary partial closure of parking spaces and footpath for the duration of 8 weeks |
€34,973.64 |
|
|
Dilapidation survey for feature wall on-site (protected by hoarding) |
€375.00 |
|
|
Temporary ground water removal sumps to excavations |
€3,013.50 |
€50,006.70 |
|
Preliminaries |
||
|
Contractors overheads, including supervision, insurance, administration, role of Project Supervisor Construction Supervisor, lighting, power and water for the works |
€17,089.80 |
€17,089.80 |
|
Sub-Total |
€187,987.78 |
€187,987.78 |
|
Cumulative Sub-Total |
€187,987.78 |
|
|
VAT on construction work (13.5%) |
€25,378.35 |
|
|
Total |
€213,366.13 |
