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SHANNON VALLEY MOVE ON TO NEXT STAGE OF FAMOUS DUBLIN LANDMARK PROJECT PART3 When Shannon Valley undertook this major contract for the partial demolition and alteration works to one of the most iconic city centre buildings in Dublin, they knew there would be challenges to overcome, along with the difficulties of working in the inner city area, on a highly developed site, with historical buildings with little or no space for any margin of error. The regenerated scheme seeks to restore a vibrant, diversely mixed and intense use to the former Clerys premises, which has been waning for decades. The new scheme includes two floors of retail at the building’s lower levels, and offices on the floors above, with a food and beverage and events space at the new proposed roof level. The world famous Clerys building on Dublin’s O’Connell Street was built 165 years ago and has seen many changes through the years, although throughout that period its striking façade has been one of the city’s most enduring landmarks and that will remain so for the foreseeable future. That’s because great care has been taken to ensure that everything of architectural and historical interest within the building, including the famous original clock, ceremonial staircase, bronze shop window frames, original columns and capitols, and the coffered ceilings has been retained, so that it can be incorporated into a vibrant mix of new architectural treatments, along with the restored decorative neoclassical fabric, as well as reinvigorate the idea of the original atrium, which was infilled in the 1970’s, bringing the new development into the modern era. The new development also will include a 176-bedroom four-star hotel, which will be re-attached to the original historic building with a new links bridge spanning over Earl Place. Earl Place will be restored from an old service road into a vibrant street more in tune with the regenerated area. Clerys had lain empty for a number of years, before it was acquired for more than €60m by a European investment group, who are redeveloping the site, which is located in a highly significant and sensitive part of Dublin’s city centre on O’Connell Street Lower, bounded to the east by Marlborough Street and to the south by Sackville Place and facing west to the Millennium Spire.
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PLANT & CIVIL ENGINEER
The project is expected to create over 700 construction jobs and once completed by late 2020 or early 2021, the redeveloped site will be called ‘Clerys Quarter’, providing employment for over 400 people. Since being appointed by the main contractor Glenbrier Construction, demolition work has been steadily progressing, with dedicated teams from the Shannon Valley Group, one of Ireland’s
largest Civil Engineering and Demolition companies working day and night to successfully complete the first phases and already starting the second phase of the project, which includes additional demolition and alteration works, piling and attendance works and other civils and enabling works.
Soft Strip The first phase included all soft strip to remove fixtures and fittings, electrical wiring and piping, floor coverings, shelving and other materials from the equivalent of seven acres of floor space. Asbestos was also removed from the buildings, which necessitated the deployment of a specialist contractor, clearing the site of any contaminated materials, all regulated, using contained areas, wrapping and licenced disposal of uncovered materials, with specialist monitoring to assure public safety. Included was the demolition of two warehouses, which were connected to the original building across Earl Street by a double storey links bridge. It was a major challenge as they included a lot of steel encased in concrete which had to be hand exposed, and cut by burning works, all in a phased sequence to ensure the stability of the structure was maintained during the destruction process.
