Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has begun the process of selecting bidders to tender for MetroLink contracts, with a maximum combined contract value of €7.9 billion.
Each contract is responsible for the heavy tunnelling, track alignment preparation, stations and structures such as bridges.
Contracts have gone live on the Government’s eTenders website.
TII said it expects the tenders to be “considerably less” than the contract notice values.
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The first contract, which is for the southern section of the MetroLink (from Charlemont to Northwood) has a contract value of €4.56 billion and is for the construction of bored railway tunnels, tunnel portals, evacuation and intervention shafts and ventilation shafts.
It is also for below ground station excavations at Charlemont, St Stephen’s Green, Tara Station, O’Connell, Mater, Glasnevin, Griffith Park, Collins Avenue, Ballymun and Northwood, up to 35m deep, including shell and core structures.
The second contract, for the northern section of the MetroLink (from Northwood to Estuary) has a contract value of €3.34 billion and will include the viaduct, surface route and railway sections built at ground level and in shallow excavations, including some covered sections.
The announcement of the tenders was an “important milestone” in delivering Ireland’s first metro system, Lorcan O’Connor, TII chief executive said.
“It is the beginning of a process that will ultimately identify the organisations that will deliver the main civil engineering works associated with MetroLink. It also highlights the importance of collaboration between the state and private sectors,” he said.
“By advancing these contracts, we are laying the foundations for a system that will significantly increase public transport capacity, improve connectivity to the airport and key destinations, and support Ireland’s climate and sustainability objectives over the coming decades,” National Transport Authority chief executive Anne Shaw said.
The announcement comes as agreements were made recently to purchase a number of homes along the proposed MetroLink line. The cost of procuring Dartmouth Square properties alone is estimated at more than €30 million, according to the programme’s director Seán Sweeney.
Some Dartmouth Square homeowners had sought to bring a judicial review into the project, but on December 23rd it emerged that residents who took the proceedings would accept an offer from TII to buy their homes.
The new metro system will need about 8,000 workers to construct, an Oireachtas committee heard last year.
