carrick on shannon bypass

leitrim lad

does anyone know when this is going ahead,as it was never as badly needed as now ,with the majority of the county who depended on the building trade out of work ,this project would create upto 300 fulltime jobs in the county for around 2-4 years
i also think that the council should cluas the contract to include that the contractors employ 100% local labor, after what happened on the dromad rooskey bypass where all the locals were turned away when they applied for work.
it would also make carrick alot safer for padestrians, say crossing the bridge, or at a game at pairc sean, as the traffic would be totally avoiding these two of many risk areas.
anyone else have any views on the above?

patpark121

Definitely agreed it's badly needed. Unfortunately the dept of finance has instructed the NRA not to spend money on any capital projects not currently under construction so it'll be a while yet till the pennies are found. As for employing locals this more than likely will not happen as the NRA has a tender process for engineering work & it's usually left to the contractor to decide.

leitrim lad

ya i know i am a contractor myself and from the area aswell, i have spoken to 3 councillors about it already and they say it would not be a bad idea and they will bring it up in the next meeting, mainly beacuse they have been inundated with calls about the criminality that went on in dromad ,bringing people who had no qualifications or relevant skills from places like cork ,killkenny,ashbourne, and dublin to leitrim to work and the best of local people ready and waiting 10 years since jamestown for dromad to start.
when you sit back and read that you should see the funny side of it ,as we normally head the opposite way for work,
i think the council needs a wake up call in there,some of them in there in them offices get away with murder, let alone the envelopes.

tuppence

I dont want to sound naive here but when people tender for a job anyone from anywhere can tender for a job once they meet the creteria requested. Cant they? Is it not European law that a contractor from anywhere in Europe can apply for that job, just like it is possible for you as a contractor to bid and win a contract for example in Fermanagh Northern Ireland, thereby ensuring that local labour there doesnt get the job. Is it not Free movement of labour or something?
Muffler I think is a bit of an authority on this subject, he may be able to throw light on it.

Btw If i was you I would lobby the councillors to finish building eg schools (essential capital funding) in the area etc rather than the roads!:)

leitrim lad

im not sure about north leitrim but the only school in the south of the county thats delayed is ballinamore, and thats a tricky subject, mohill just opened 2 new schools, drumcong got an extension the size of a school along with kilnagross,and a few others
i do agree as a contractor myself ,i can tender whatever i like and if im the preffered bidder ,then i get it, however the council act as the main contractor on this kind of project, and they sub contract it to a contractor via nra approval, therefore if the council had genuine remorse for the people of the county they could instate such a cluas to ensure that a percentage of local employment was created trough out the duration of the contract,
however as the finance minister has to give approval to release funding, in this depressing climate, i have proposed to a few councillors what is known as a ppp scheme, which could generate the employment to lift the county out of the recession, on an employment basis, and in the current climate could be constructed up to and above 40% cheaper than in good times, it is a €150m job,
easy enough with a cut and fill for the majority, some deep bog and a large bridge across the shannon which would cost around €40m alone on a simolar design to the dromad rooskey, preffered roundabouts on major junctions such as the leitrim road, and the dublin and boyle sides to slow traffic at these merging junctions.
it could be undertaken within the next 18 months ,and bought back by the state or lease/buy over 20-30 years, and on compleetion would then give an oppertunity to open works restoring the bridge in carrick ,another years work there for 20-40 people,
but something has to be done about the deadness in the county they are just 2 jobs, i had 25 people on the books in feb 2008 ,now down to 10 and only a months steady work left for them

muffler

tuppence wrote: »

Muffler I think is a bit of an authority on this subject, he may be able to throw light on it.

Far from an expert on issues such as this but I would know a little about it. Under EU law all state departments and local authorities are obliged to accept tenders from other EU member states.

I am aware of a Spanish firm tendering for a local authority project in the last couple of weeks.

il gatto

I think a French company built the Knock bypass. Like leitrim lad suggests though, the Co. Co. doesn't need to put it out to tender (unless the NDP or NRA demand it in their charters). They could get the plans drawn up and use a combination of current council staff and sub contracted companies to build it. In the current slump, many companies that would've tendered for these jobs might be glad to get the work subbed out to them. Big constuction jobs like this cannot be allowed to increase 2-300% in cost as happened in the past though.

tuppence

il gatto wrote: »

Big constuction jobs like this cannot be allowed to increase 2-300% in cost as happened in the past though.

Dont think over runs in cost and time can happen (eg port tunnel etc) to the same extent as before because of the introduction of the Public works contract. This means that a costings for jobs have to be done to an extremely tight detail before the job begins, with not much room for manouvre. So alot of the job is in the planning.

I would personally put any bypass money into the Western Rail Corridor or to sort out some of the bridges that slow down the Dublin Sligo rail route.

leitrim lad

i spend a 100k tendering the dromad rooskey bypass, and didnt get a minutes work on it ,turned away like a dog by a man called john from monaghan, he was with the contractors, i tendered against them to the nra/leitrim co co,
i have about 20k spent estimating the carrick bypass and if i dont go down with the recession i thinkl im in the running for it, and the rooskey- mullingar aswell, i learned from my mistakes with dromad, and i now know the route of the carrick bypass having dug all the test holes for it, theres about 400,000 cube of bog to be moved, deepest point is kiltoghert/leitrim side of shannon, @ 9 meters, a good months work,
but i cant see the funds being there until atleast 2013, if were to wait on the council/nra
i rekon i would have that job opened in 18 months, if i got it, however i think it will be atleast a 2 year contract when awarded, its simple enough and fairly strait forward,
the team that designed my version of the dromad rooskey had hard shoulders along both sides, and i was 5mill cheaper than <SNIP>


Mod edit: Please refrain from posting such wild allegations

7mountpleasant

Can't imagine that Carrrick is high up enough on the list of prioritys, i'd put the mullingar to longford improvements ahead of it, on the local labour side of things not a hope they could put in a local labour clause would be shot down from a hight straight away and wouldn't really be fair anyway, didn't heagarty's get the enniskillen hospital gig if i'm not mistaken?

leitrim lad

ya i heard that alright, mullingar - rooskey was ment to be a green field job, almost in line with the rail until newtown, crossing it to the north of longford ,egdtown, rathowen,ballinafad, and tieing into a dual carraige way around that pub before mullingar, 50km job its a big one and again badly needed,
the fact that we havent even got a td in the county,or anyone in government from leitrim,isnt really helping us either,