With its head office based in Clondalkin, Co Dublin, SIAC Construction Ltd provides turnkey solutions to the building and civil engineering industries across Ireland. Building Ireland touched base with Contracts Manager Oliver Scott to hear all about the ins and outs of the company, the projects it has on-going at the moment and the one that earned it an award nomination in May.
These are busy times at SIAC Construction Ltd and the plan for the large multi-disciplined construction group is to keep things that way right through to next year.
The business itself was first formed in 1913 and today considers itself to be one of Ireland’s leading construction company in delivering new and innovative contracts, in civils, Mechanical & Electrical and buildings.
Building Ireland spoke with Contracts Manager Oliver Scott, who has been part of the team at SIAC since 1999, to find out more about the current state of business for the company and its hopes for a return to normality in the market.
“Business is very challenging as a whole at the moment between rapid inflation and problems associated with the delivery of materials, we’re no different than anyone else,” Oliver outlined.
“It’s a problem that I don’t think is going to be solved in the short term and is something that has to be addressed by the industry and by Clients.
“Clients are feeling the effects too and all you can do is just hope that the market returns to normality sooner, rather than later.”
Indeed, the Covid-19, and the government lockdowns which followed in order to combat the spread of the virus, has had a telling impact on the industry with soaring material costs having the most notable impact on the building sector.
Nonetheless, many companies across Ireland remain busy with projects and you can include SIAC Construction Ltd in that list.
As one of the country’s leading contractors, SIAC has built a strong reputation growing business across its divisions in Ireland.
Through a programme of alliances with major international civil engineering contractors and specialist contractors, they are able to undertake multidisciplinary projects of scale and complexity.
With a team of professionals that work closely with its design partners and clients, delivering flexible and innovative service to each and every project, SIAC is committed to carrying out projects on programme and within budget in both a safe and environmentally friendly manner.
Right now, the company is immersed in a number of new projects having recently completed some works in the capital, including the Hole in the Wall/Mayne Road Junction Upgrade project which was successfully handed over at the end of last year.
“We completed the Hole in the Wall project for Fingal County Council in December of last year and more recently we finished work on the Broadstone Plaza adjacent to the Technological University at Grangegorman,” said Oliver.
“We’ve also commenced the upgrading of the section of the Clonskeagh Road in Dublin which also involves the construction of cycle lanes. We continue to look at other projects as they become available while being cautious, as most contractors are at the moment.”
So, the burning question is what has been the secret to SIAC Construction Ltd continued success decade after decade?
Now part of the team 23 years, Oliver feels much of it is down to the company’s ability to deliver projects of the highest standard time and time again.
“SIAC has a long history of producing high quality projects across a variety of sectors,” stated the Contracts Manager.
“We travel for our clients too and we’ve even carried out projects as diverse at The Spire on O’Connell St in the past.
“We have excellent staff that clients know they can rely upon.”
In February, SIAC Construction Ltd was confirmed as a finalist at 2022 Irish Construction Excellence Awards (ICE) in its Civil Engineering Under €10m category.
The project nominated was the Hole in the Wall/Mayne Road Junction Upgrade for Fingal County Council, which has been a massive success both in terms of the high standard of construction and its benefit to the community.
Officially opened on December 10, 2021, the project was constructed during a worldwide pandemic and Oliver was able to fill us in on the details of the challenges behind as well as the great satisfaction for the company in finally completing it.
“The project commenced on site in February 2020 and within a month it had been shut down until May 2020 because of Covid,” he explained.
“We got going again and it was shut down for a second time in January 2021 before it was completed in late 2021 and officially opened by Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien.
“It’s a great achievement to be nominated for an Irish Construction Excellence Award and it’s very much a credit to our site team, Fingal County Council and Barry Transport. We all collaborated very well together on this project.”
Looking towards the months ahead for SIAC Construction Ltd, Oliver says they, like every other construction firm out there, will be keen to see normality return to the market and that there is greater co-operation and risk sharing between contractors and their clients. The PWC form of Contract is no longer sustainable in its current form according to Oliver and Government must now work in partnership with the CIF to put measures in place to protect all stakeholders equally.
SIAC Construction Ltd
Head Office:
Knockmeenagh House
Monastery Road
Clondalkin
Dublin 22
Tel: 00 353 (1) 4033111
E-mail: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, September 2022, Vol 8 No 9
