https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/0902/1467936-leinster-house-bike-shed/

thebourke

Bike shed for 18 bikes…cost 335,000e

It works out at a cost of 18,611euro per bike!!!

They are having a laugh

Kimbot

has this bike shed got inbuilt wi-fi, butlers to clean them etc?????

H_Lime

Who built it?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122574722#Comment_122574722

OPW. Eamonn Ryan is taking them to task on the price.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/0902/1467936-leinster-house-bike-shed/

thebourke

"

The stand was built with a special cantilevered canopy that is designed to protect from the prevailing northerly winds.

It has not been fully enclosed however, with some believing it leaves their bikes too exposed to the elements.

"

gmisk

Errrrr is this really it?!? Jesus Christ...

Summer2020

they live on a different planet to us mortals. Absolutely disgraceful spending of public money. Opw are well known for wasting money.

Summer2020

you’ll find if you can trace the contracts back that it’s someone with close ties to one of the parties in government. Always the way.

They spent €1.5 million on the small glass shop that was opened within the grounds of Leinster house , it’s about 5x5 metres in size. A gift shop for selling Leinster house branded tat. It closed after a year or so as it was operating as a greenhouse and was too hot to work in. Who’d have thought, an all glass box …

They’re unaccountable

thebourke

and we wonder why they can't sort the housing crisis?

Squidgy Black

It’s annoying as well because all it does is bring more shít flinging towards active travel as well. Most of the comments you see is how it’s a waste of money (which at that price it was), it wasn’t needed, how the government are pissing away money on cycling instead of XYZ etc.

The idea of the place where active travel decisions and policies are being made having good end of journey facilities is a massive plus, and encouraging our policy makers to actually use active travel is great. But of course in typical Irish civil service fashion, they’ve managed to make an absolute balls of it and turn it into a fiasco

tnegun

I love how despite the price cyclists must still cycle behind the parking sports with cars potentially reversing out. At least dangerous design isn't reserved for us plebs.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122574845#Comment_122574845

When I heard the price I had pictured in my mind an enclosed building made from fancy rock that came from a specialist quarry to match those used for government buildings in the area and facilities inside it like to dry wet clothing on, it's in reality a glorified trolley bay.

seanin4711

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122574730#Comment_122574730

do you honestly think this guy wasnt aware of the cost?

Deeper Blue

Eamon Ryan leaving the bike shed:

uptherebels

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575152#Comment_122575152

As someone who works in fabrication, I thought I'd wait to see what it was like before passing judgement as even though the price is ridiculous, it could have accurate depending on the ground works and materials/technology used.

Then I saw a picture of it. Even with the cost of steel being inflated and the cost of fabrication if you knocked 150-200k off that price it would still be steep. (With the caveat of not having an exact breakdown in costs)

The worst part is, it's completely useless as a bike shelter.

Someone took two/three bus stops from Patrick Street in cork, stuck them together, spruced it up a bit and is now laughing all the way to the bank.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575152#Comment_122575152

I thought ah maybe that is it not finished but they have shown it on the news nope...that is it...madness.

I have had some dealings with the OPW so I really shouldn't have been surprised, a complete shambles

iamwhoiam

So bikes get Irish marble and hi spec materials while schools cry out for plain porta cabins to house over crowded classrooms for children

Bikes are seemingly more important than children

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575475#Comment_122575475

Erm, did you not look at the pic of it above??? Marble and hi-spec materials it is not.

iamwhoiam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575544#Comment_122575544

erm I listened to the News and Irish granite stone was charged for . Perhaps it wasn’t used but was paid for

Asked about the costs involved, a spokeswoman for the OPW said: “The bicycle shelter is a new structure located within the setting of Leinster House, a protected structure of national importance.

“In response to the character of the historic setting a well-designed structure with an appropriate use of high-quality materials and finish were required.”

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575579#Comment_122575579

Where's the quote where they say they paid for Irish granite and marble?

iamwhoiam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575639#Comment_122575639

I cant marble mentioned again but Irish granite mentioned on RTE news online

https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/0902/1467936-leinster-house-bike-shed/
The shelter was constructed in accordance with the specifications of the Part 9 Planning application and included materials of steel, glass and Irish granite.

H_Lime

So 335k for a few lashed together bus shelters, fantastic stuff lads well done. How many cataract surgeries could be performed here in the Republic instead of bussing them up north and cutting the funding.

beggars_bush

Love how irate all the non cyclists are about this bike shed.

Nothing surprises me when it comes to the opw and splurging money on certain things

Seth Brundle

Looking at the photo of it, there's glass on the back of it, just in front of the wall. What is the point in that?

Trekker09

https://www.donedeal.ie/bicycles-for-sale/bike-shed/37834518

Trekker09

….and another one!

https://www.donedeal.ie/bicycles-for-sale/bike-shed-as-new/37831114

Mefistofelino

There are approximately 8 car parking spaces removed by the construction of the shed and the access to around 10 more seems to have been significantly impacted. In any photos, all those spaces were occupied so I'm going to hazard a wild guess that the OPW has had to replace that parking somewhere else - either on or off site - and that cost will have to have been absorbed by the project. However "We spent 100k building a shed and another 230k on car parking" doesn't quite invoke the same level of self-soiling outrage in the Twittersphere.

The real casualty in this is that, as mentioned further up, the OPWs failure to address this in a timely fashion has meant that overnight, it has now become harder to get council or state funding for active travel infrastructure.

Large bottle small glass

Three contractors a Mayo, Kildare & Kerry tendered for the bike shelter at Leinster house.
Yh
They were interviewed by an OPW officer.

The Mayo man quoted €100,000 the OPW officer asked for a breakdown in the figures the Mayo man said “€33,000 for parts €33,000 for labour & €34,000 profit”.

The Kildare man quoted €150,000 and his breakdown was €50,000 for parts €50,000 for labour & €50,000 profit.

The Kerry man quoted €300,000, the officer was shocked at the price & asked for his breakdown the Kerry man said “well it’s €100,000 for me, €100,000 for you & we give the job to the Mayo man.

Mefistofelino

Niall Tobin wants his joke back

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122580361#Comment_122580361

the 'breakdown' of the costs which was released makes no mention of that, though.

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575475#Comment_122575475

If bikes were deemed more important for children they'd have provided a state of the art bike facility. You know, somewhere with top notch security so yet another bike isn't stolen or vandalised in the city centre, somewhere that your bike wont be open to the elements all day so that you don't get water ingress, sunlight damage etc, or… I can only dream here… somewhere with storage facilities for wet gear, a track pump, tool kit etc. But they didn't. They provided something that no bike anywhere is going to happy to be parked in. But carry on with the hyperbole.

gmacww

There are more parts to this story starting to spill out and a good thread on reddit about it. Seems that as part of this they resurfaced a carpark which was the guts of the cost. The single line item of 300+k for a bike shed always looked dodge. But resurfacing a car park to go with it less so.

As someone put it this happens all the time. A local council wants to re-tar a road but there is nothing for it in the budget. The active travel budget however has plenty. Lets stick down a piss poor bike lane and oh look we've to re-tar the whole road as a result. Ergo the bike lane costs €1.5m, queue the outrage on socials.

I'd wager the bike shed was never the goal here and that re-doing the car park was. The shed was the mechanism to dig into another budget.

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122581151#Comment_122581151

If that turns out to be the case, watch the trolls, outraged motorists, shocked politicians and self righteous journalists slowly pull a Homer and disappear back into the hedge. Because it's never about the cost, or even the value for money… if everyone who is outraged is being honest here, its about the fact that it involves cyclists. And when it all blows over, the fact that cycling employees there are left with a pretty crap facility will be completely forgotten/ ignored.

Large bottle small glass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122581306#Comment_122581306

Do you are spending too much time online? The groups that annoy you are being fed to you to get you annoyed. That's what makes social media work and generate money.

In the real world €335k for a bike stand would I suggest generate surprise/anger/outrage in a reasonable person.

If it turns out to be cover for active travel ear marked money paying for a car park, then supporters of active travel should rightly be annoyed.

In personal dealings with the local authority and school in relation to land for a car park, I asked why was there so many bike stands in drawings; I can never remember anyone cycling to that school(my own primary school). The answer given was "we'll chance an active travel application" for funding.

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122581406#Comment_122581406

??? I'm not on any social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc etc). You don't need to be on any of those platforms to have an awareness of how this story has blown up, is being received by the public and to see narrative/ angle that is being pursued. Its been on the radio discussion, in news bulletins, Indo, IT, Examiner, its been joked about in a number of WhatsApp groups I'm in. Possibly the least discussed angle is the potential misapplication of money earmarked for 'active travel'.

I'm as annoyed about this in the same way I'm annoyed about half the cycling infrastructure built. Both are either cases of use of 'active travel' budget for none 'active travel' facilities (which is made more insidious as the public are then invited to be outraged at the amount of money spent on 'active travel') or cycling facilities which aren't or are barely fit for propose with no indication that they've been designed by or had any input from the people they are intended to be used by.

The groups don't annoy me half as much as the insidious undermining of anything that may be progressive but which happens not to align with big business.

Cabaal

Is the bike parking overpriced? Yep.

But I find it amusing that people are not outraged at the 10million a year spent on less then 3,000 parking spots and 2million spent on parking charges by OPW (based on 2012 news report).

If they maintained those figures thats 142million in the past 12 years, insane money.

At least the bike parking won't cost more money each year for the 32 bikes, by comparison 32 cars cost 768,000e (based on 2k per year) for the last 12 years.

De Bhál

I most outraged about the state of that shelter, not worth a shite really.

I do like the fact that in the photos none of the bikes seem to be locked. The added bonus of having Gardai present nearby all day.

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122581151#Comment_122581151

Something like this wouldn't surprise me. Over 11 years ago Waterford County Council (before they merged with the city) spent about €450k on a pair of "bike lanes" on the Tramore road that consisted of white paint on the existing hard shoulders - no separation. They still get used as a go-slow lane for tractors, trucks, and whatever you're having yourself and have never seen much in the way of upkeep (there's an ever growing pothole there for about 6 years at this stage). I have it on fairly good authority that a sizeable chunk of that budget got diverted into other stuff they needed a few shekels for at the time.

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122575167#Comment_122575167

Why would he be? The OPW has no responsibility to him nor does he have any direct oversight of it. It was O'Donovan's budget so any oversight should have been his and he seems to be trying to wash his hands of it.

This is a debacle, but in fairness I'd be well peed off if the cabinet were discussing the minutiae of bike sheds with all the other problems facing the country.

Cabaal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122585847#Comment_122585847

I remember that annoucement, a total farce.
Makes the bike parking seem like fantastic value considering atleast people got to use something new!

Macy0161

I've no idea whether the cost is justified, however, if they'd just slung in a basic steel structure we'd have an taisce/ Frank McDonald et al (rightly) giving out about the lack of regard for the protected structures around it.

Meanwhile, lots of white elephant road "improvements" get glossed over or used as a demand for more spending (to create more induced demand).