State company Uisce Éireann hopes to start work this year on overhauling Dublin’s water treatment system, one of two big projects for which it began seeking bids this week.
The utility could spend €7 billion on two schemes, Greater Dublin Drainage and the Water Supply Project, meant to meet growing needs for water and supply the 300,000 new homes the Government wants built by 2030.
It took the first step this week in hiring contractors for both by issuing questionnaires that will test interested bidders’ ability to work on large infrastructure projects.
Preliminary work on the Greater Dublin Drainage project could begin “as early as year end”, Uisce Éireann said in a statement announcing the issue of the questionnaires.
READ MORE
The company secured planning approval for the Dublin development after settling with two parties who asked the High Court to review An Coimisiún Pleanála’s decision to allow the undertaking to proceed.
First announced 14 years ago, Greater Dublin Drainage provides for a new wastewater treatment plant at Clonshaugh, a new sewer, pumping stations and a marine outfall.
Uisce Éireann’s board submitted its approved business case and procurement strategy for the development to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in December.
One of the State’s biggest infrastructure plans, the Water Supply Project, will take water from the River Shannon at Parteen Basin, to supply Tipperary, Offaly, Kildare and south Dublin through a 172km pipe.
The route includes a treatment plant at Birdhill, Co Tipperary and a reservoir at Peamount, Co Dublin.
Mike Healy, Uisce Éireann’s strategic projects programme director, said both schemes were “critical to supporting the water and wastewater services” needed for new homes, economic growth and the environment.
Uisce Éireann says the pre-qualification questionnaires issued this week are meant to prompt responses from building and engineering companies with the capacity to meet the State’s infrastructure demands.
While it manages this process, the company will work simultaneously on procurement, design and enabling work, to cut delays, cost over-runs and risks to final delivery of both plans, said Healy.
“This ensures projects can proceed immediately once approvals are secured, improving delivery certainty and value for money,” he added.
