Ballymore Eustace refurbishment

This is pretty topical after Galway's problems ...

Ballymore is the largest Water Treatment Plant in Ireland and, over the next 5 years, will enhance its status as a state-of-the-art facility, developed to its full potential in serving Dublin City's water consumers.

This plant serves the water needs of approximately 1/3 of the population of Ireland. The contract duration will be for 4.5 years, with a total value of €70m. The Contractors appointed were ASCON Ltd for the Civil Contract and Earthtech Ltd for the Mechanical/Electrical contract.

The Ballymore Eustace Plant is on the shore of Poulaphuca Reservoir and supplies over 250 Ml/d of treated water to Dublin City. It was conceived in 1936 as a 166 million m3 reservoir in a catchment of 312km2 - with the dual purposes of water supply and hydro-electric power generation.

The current development - Stage 3 - which has been underway since 2000, now incorporates Stage 4 and is, by far, the largest to-date, with an expected cost of €70.0m. Initially a Design Build Operate and Finance Pilot, it was re-launched in 2004 as a 'traditional' procurement project. The scope includes:

* A complete refurbishment of the existing Plant to bring it into line with current technical, environmental and safety standards;
* New filtration, sedimentation, chemical, waste water and sludge facilities;
* A 2.4 MW new power system - complete with on-site power generation,
* On-site Electrolytic Chlorination disinfection, in place of less safe chlorine gas;
* A 36 station distributed control system, based on optical communications;
* A 54 Ml underground storage reservoir and outlet control system for treated water supply.

The fully-automated plant will also include modern staff, maintenance and training facilities in line with Dublin City Council's Partnership Forum objectives, an accredited water and environmental laboratory and a contemporary visitor and conference centre.

RPS completed designs and tender documents on the basis of two contracts (IEI Civil and MF1 Mechanical). Tenders were received and contracts were signed on the 29th of January with construction already underway. The construction programme is set for 4.5 years, primarily to accommodate the complex nature of the Works.