COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

MOTION NO. 9

MOTION: Councillor J. Lahart

"That the Manager confirms he is satisfied with the reinstatement quality of the work carried out by Boherboy Contractors."

REPORT:

The Boherboy Water Supply Scheme involves a major upgrading and expansion of the water supply network and storage infrastructure in the areas of Saggart, Rathcoole, Newcastle, Brownsbarn, Citywest, the southern parts of Tallaght and areas of Ballycragh, Oldbawn, Knocklyon, Ballyboden and Ballycullen. The area which the new scheme will serve currently has no storage reservoirs and suffers from inadequate water pressure. This scheme provides for the construction of 41km of water main, new reservoirs at Saggart and Kiltalown and a pumping station in Saggart.

With such a large scheme, a certain impact on roads, public and private property is unavoidable and re-instatement programmes are a critical part of the completion of the contracts. In addition, the scale and type of contruction - being the laying of Watermains - requires that the approach to re-instatement is staged with a temporary re-instatement stage (with settlement periods) followed ultimately by a final re-instatement stage.

Regrettably, this staged re-instatement approach, with the crucial settlement period, can lead to an impression that re-instatements have not been completed to proper standards and that value for money has not been acheived. It is absolutely necessasry that the re-instatement is approached in this way.

Of course there will be occasions where final re-instatement works do not work out as planned however, in all of these cases the matter is revisited with contractors to ensure that the required standards are met, re-instatements are redone and all such works are monitored during and after completion of the contract to ensure that any issues that arise can be addressed.

At this point, approximately 50% of the project has received a final re-instatement with a further 20% under temporary re-instatement at the moment. Works are ongoing on the remaining sections. As is normal, issues have arisen throughout the process and areas have been revisited while other areas will more than likely require revisiting before the project is ultimately finished. This is provided for both in terms of the assignment of responsibility and provision of finance under the contract.

In general, the Council is satisfied with the standards being acheived and will continue to work closely with the contractor in ensuring that standards are kept to a high level.