Eyre Square to be opened April 13

SuperMacs

Finally, at long last.
I'll be happy when the hoardings come down, because the place has looked a mess for the last 2 1/2 years.
But at what cost?
In less the time I have wathced...
A full hospital wing be added to the Bon Secours.
A 3 story office block get built in Mervue, and the inside fully kitted out.
And Eyre Square doesn't have any buildings!!!

The people who project managed the project should be shot.
The moral of the story, never trust a public body to sort out any type of large scale project.

But...I am happy it will finally be opened

It took less time to build the Empire State building.

Did anyone else notice a weird food-stall/shop near the top of Eyre Square?

Sweet.. I'm off thursday so methinks I'll go in there for a wander.. and a game of frisbee

sioda

As a person from Limerick who travels to Galway a good bit I am very happy this is finished like most ppl I could ream off projects that have finished in less time but in Limerick we know your pain main sewerage works here meant to take a year took 4 to 5 and like yee a few contractor.

So cant wait to see the finished product yee galwegians are lucky to have such a nice open space in the centre of town enjoy :-)

timeout

Where was this posted? On the radio? newspaper?

SuperMacs

timeout wrote:

Where was this posted? On the radio? newspaper?

Heard it on Galway Bay FM this morning.

Duras

That's good news

TerrorFirmer

Personally I think the most annoying thing is the fact that it looked more or less the same as it always did.

Sure, there's nicer paths, cleaner walkways, more trees etc, but I mean - 2 years? I'd nearly expect it to make my eyes bleed after waiting so long for this "radical overhaul"

That should have only taken then several months at best.

po0k

Perhaps they had the foresight to lay ducting for fibre, power etc. and the square will be WiFi/WiMAX'd to the gills?

No?

Bugger.

jsr

HavoK wrote:

Personally I think the most annoying thing is the fact that it looked more or less the same as it always did..

Don’t you see it’s a physical manifestation for saying "the more things change the more they stay the same". It's ART people.

SuperMacs

SuperMacs wrote:

Heard it on Galway Bay FM this morning.

Oooops!!!
Must have heard wrong.
I have just read on the Independent that it will not be open for 2 weeks.

elurhs

Well AFAIK, there is the date when it will be finished (supposedly mid-April), and the official opening in early May.

Great to have it finished eventually.

faigs

Opens tomorrow, with some small ongoing works still happening for a few weeks. So it will be mid april when its completely finished.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/04/12/story253740.html

po0k

Last weekend I heard (by word-of-mouth) that Shop St. was going to be torn up in places again to 'fix' the cobblestones again.

Anyone hear any more on that (for now) rumour?

aw

To be honest that wouldn't surprise me.
Parts of it are terrible.
Especially Abbeygate Street. Say down past the O2 shop heading towards the Eyre Square centre.

Ronan|Raven

For those of us who are now overseas and get laughed at when we tell people about it I demand pictures!

Sponge Bob

Its not open at present (10AM) , its the 13th . Builders go on holidays at 6pm today and come back monday week. This is known as the Builders Holiday .

Lots of busy looking builders were scratching up there 10 mins back but I cannot see ALL of it opening today and totally finished off . Even if it does open I will give the lawn about 1 week before it needs redoing

SpendYourStash

It will be great to see the square finished

kippy

I am not sure if you can get the galway independant online but there has been a picture in it every week since the project started showing progress of lack thereof.

muppetkiller

the Galway advertiser has a webcam on it's front page
www.galwayadvertiser.com

galah

Does anyone know if the car spaces that were around Eyre Square will be back? Or have they just disappeared for good?

The whole "refurbishment" was ridiculous anyway - I would have tarmacced the pathways for, say, 100 k...Problem solved...Place wasn't really bad to begin with, they should have just done something to those horrible public toilets, and cleaned up the pathways a little. Should NOT have taken 2 years and 9 million to fix it...

Idiots, the lot of them...

SuperMacs

Want to hear a scarry number?
Eyre Square cost -- €9 million!!!

So tell me, how many houses could you build with that figure?
Even better I am sure you could build a whole new hospital.

BrokenArrows

How in gods name did it cost that much. Cut down some trees. Move some dirt around. New paving and grass. am i missing something.

In saying that it does look pretty good.

Vorak

I heard that shortly after they started they found a complete mess of cables, wires, pipes and other assorted crap, a couple of feet below the sub-soil. This would probably explain some of the costs and delays. A proper survey was obviously overlooked at the early stages and meant that ever jcb driver probably refused to dig (in case they got electricuted) until a proper survey was completed. When you do a job like this, you need to leave the site in such a way as that it can be remodelled again in the future if needs be. Everything has to be accounted for with detailed drawings of exactly where everything is (cables, pipes foundations etc.)

Sure, the contractors and project managers made a complete mess of this scheme, but they were'nt responsible for the mess they found themselves having to work with in the beginning. Eyre square has, over the years, been dug up for cables etc. to be layed without proper management.

Its a complete hypocrisy that the county council blamed the contractors for taking so long. The county council were responsible for managing Eyre Square over the years, and through their bad management, Eyre square gradually became a complete nightmare to ever try and fix. It may have looked pretty on the surface, but you cant just re-surface a park. If the county council are to point fingers they'll have to pull them out of their arses first.

The appointment of a city architect would be a step in the right direction. A city as cool as Galway deserves better than this.

rabbitinlights

Every slab of Granite was imported in from China.

Granite. Imported into the west of Ireland, thats like importing rain.......

but im sure the Irish granite was way to grippy and they needed really slippy slabs to hurt people when it rains.

that said, it does look really good and its very nice to have our square back.

S.

Vorak

Vorak wrote:

I heard that shortly after they started they found a complete mess of cables, wires, pipes and other assorted crap, a couple of feet below the sub-soil. This would probably explain some of the costs and delays. A proper survey was obviously overlooked at the early stages and meant that ever jcb driver probably refused to dig (in case they got electricuted) until a proper survey was completed. When you do a job like this, you need to leave the site in such a way as that it can be remodelled again in the future if needs be. Everything has to be accounted for with detailed drawings of exactly where everything is (cables, pipes foundations etc.)

Sure, the contractors and project managers made a complete mess of this scheme, but they were'nt responsible for the mess they found themselves having to work with in the beginning. Eyre square has, over the years, been dug up for cables etc. to be layed without proper management.

I think something happened like that a few years ago.. they dug up something in Eyre Square resulting in a loss of power in most of the square and shopping centre

monument

rabbitinlights wrote:

Every slab of Granite was imported in from China.

Granite. Imported into the west of Ireland, thats like importing rain.......

but im sure the Irish granite was way to grippy and they needed really slippy slabs to hurt people when it rains.

that said, it does look really good and its very nice to have our square back.

S.

Well, if it is cheaper to import rain, like it is most stone, why not import rain?

Was there today and i can honestly say that it was the most i've ever felt a student.There was such a chillaxed atmosphere there today.Eyre square is what made me go to uni here.The vibe was brilliant when i was younger and even better now.
Can't wait till exams are over!

emee

county council has nothin to do with it its the CITY council

monument

rabbitinlights wrote:

Every slab of Granite was imported in from China.

Granite. Imported into the west of Ireland, thats like importing rain.......

but im sure the Irish granite was way to grippy and they needed really slippy slabs to hurt people when it rains.

On the slipping part, I had a near experience on one of the outer footpaths when the project was half built. But it's a matter of finish. You could have the most 'grippy' stone and still have a dangerous finish.