AN ACTION over structural defects in the Ballymun Central Youth Facility alleged to have been caused by defective infill material containing pyrite has opened before the Commercial Court. Mr Justice Peter Charleton, who is hearing the action by James Elliott Construction Ltd (JEC) against Irish Asphalt Limited, will visit the youth facility at Silogue Road in Ballymun today. The case is listed to run for 50 days.
Opening the action yesterday, Bill Shipsey SC for JEC said the centre suffered severe structural damage and the dispute was about the cause of that. It was his case that the cracking of the concrete floor slab and partition walls was caused by a heave and that the pyrite infill material used caused the concrete ground floor slab to crack, counsel said.
It was “of great significance” there was no cracking to the building’s brick outer wall, Mr Shipsey said. This was the strongest indication the building did not suffer from differential settlement, or subsidence of one part of it, as the defendant alleged.
The heave resulted in extensive cracking and bulging and this would not be seen if the defendant was correct about the cause, he argued. JEC claims the defects resulted from defective infill supplied by Irish Asphalt Ltd and the cost of remedying these will be over €2.2 million, excluding any general damages claim it may be exposed to. It also claims it spent some €500,000 on site investigations into the defects.
JEC claims it is entitled to be indemnified by Irish Asphalt in those sums and any others arising from any claim by Ballymun Regeneration Ltd over the defects.
JEC, of Virginia, Co Cavan, claims it entered into a contract to build the facility in 2004 and handed over the facility around October 2005. It claims Irish Asphalt supplied it with the hardcore infill used in the construction.
Serious structural defects developed at some date before November 2007 and an investigation by engineers engaged by Ballymun Regeneration identified defects, including extensive cracking, spiralling and bulging in the plasterboard lining at ground-floor level in the new building, cracking in the ground-floor slab and significant cracking around the ground floor slab, it claims.
JEC said investigating engineers said the floor slab appeared to have heaved upwards and there was a “very strong probability” this was caused by the presence of pyrite or iron sulphide in the hardcore fill supplied by Irish Asphalt.
Irish Asphalt denied the claims. It denies the alleged presence of pyrite in hardcore material allegedly supplied by it caused the defects and said there was never a problem with reactive pyrite in the Irish construction industry. It denies liability to compensate Ballymun Regeneration for loss and damage allegedly suffered by it.
