THE UNIVERSITY of Limerick has brought a legal claim seeking €5.2 million over alleged defects in its new Health Sciences Building which have allegedly caused such extensive water damage the roof of the building will have to be replaced.
Sixty-five points of leakage into the building had been identified in the past two years, it is claimed.
Some are in rooms containing expensive electronic medical equipment while one leak affects the room housing the computer service for the north campus, the court was told.
The proceedings by Plassey Campus Developments Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the University of Limerick, and UL itself were admitted to the Commercial Court list yesterday by Mr Justice Peter Kelly and adjourned on consent of the sides for a week.
The action is against Building Design Partnership Ltd, with registered offices in Manchester; Key Bemo Ltd, with registered offices at Heage, Derby; and Rowland Roofing Ltd, with registered offices at Moneen Industrial Estate, Castlebar, Co Mayo.
It is alleged BDP acted as architects for the Health Sciences Building project, Key Bemo provided the standing seam roofing system and RRL built the roof.
It is claimed the structure of the building has been damaged due to water ingress and the plaintiffs’ consultant engineer had advised the damage was such the roof of the building would have to be replaced at a cost of €5.2 million.
It is claimed the works on the building reached practical completion in September 2005, at which date rainwater leakage was occurring at two separate locations.
The leaks had been monitored since then and 65 points of leakage had been identified since December 2006, it is claimed. Various meetings with the defendants and a conciliation process had failed to resolve matters, the plaintiffs said. While works had been carried out to the roof, these had not remedied the problems.