Dunkettle delay ‘depressing’

The delays to the Dunkettle Interchange Ugrade were branded as “depressing” at an event this week which included an update on this and other road projects in Cork.

Paul Moran, from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), confirmed yesterday that the tendering process would take ten to 12 months for the next stage of the Dunkettle Interchange Upgrade with hopes that it would be completed by 2023.

However, after Mr Moran’s update, Tom Parlon, the Director Gerneral of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) described this news as depressing and said that this project was “badly needed” and “important”.

Mr Moran and Mr Parlon were speaking at the Southern Construct event on Leeside on Wednesday, which was hosted by the CIF.

Mr Moran, Regional Manager, South West Roads Capital Progreamme, TTI said at the conference yesterday: “The Dunkettle is a two stage contract. I make no apologies for that.”

“Two stage contracts get a bad time in the press and in the Public Accounts Committee but they are actually a very useful type of contract.”

He explained: “Unfortunately, in August of this year, the cost of stage two wasn’t acceptable to us so we are going back out to tender again.

“That has happened and the tender was advertised two days ago. We expect it to take ten to twelve months but in the meantime there is a whole lot of other work to be done on Dunkettle.

“We hope that by next summer when we get a cost on that, Government will approve it. It’s not going to open in one big bang so yes (we are hoping that it will be) completed by 2023, but you are likely to open ramps before that. In terms of the next ten months, there is a lot of works to be done, it’s a really tough site in terms of services.”

As for the Macroom bypass, he said it was a “monster”, given how much money was being spent on it – nearly a quarter of billion euro.

“We could have taken the easy way out and just done a nine km bypass of Macroom but we didn’t. Tenders are in and are being assessed at the moment. If approved, we are out on the ground as soon as possible,” he said.

Meanwhile he also spoke about the Ringaskiddy-Cork Road Project. He said: “It’s in with the High Court and we hope to have a decision by mid-October. If there’s an appeal or it goes against us, you can start adding years onto the delay.”