One of Ireland’s leading building companies, Clancy Construction was delighted to be a finalist in the 2024 Irish Construction Excellence Awards for its successful delivery of the new Tallaght Innovation Centre.
No stranger to winning prestigious accolades, Clancy Construction was been shortlisted in the ‘Commercial – Up to €20 million’ category. The Irish Construction Excellence Awards (ICE Awards) are the original and premier recognition of performance excellence for the contracting sector in Ireland, and provide an opportunity for the industry to showcase and reward best practice across the full range of construction disciplines and project categories.
The Tallaght Innovation Centre is a landmark building for Tallaght Town Centre under the procurement of South Dublin County Council. It sits at the head of a new park/urban plaza on lands north of Belgard Road North and provides a civic focus for the area that will be developed in other lots to include housing and a school. This contract also includes the construction of a new link road to the north of the building.
The Innovation Centre is an exciting new initiative aimed at bringing start-up companies to the area by providing office space of differing scales that can be rented for a fixed period of time. The building is a metal and glass-clad box that commands the northern end of the site and is highly visible, with a night and day presence, four-storeys high, the ground floor is open and inviting, with public interface, you can see through the building from side to side. Above this, there are three floors of lettable units that vary in size and look out over Tallaght Town Centre and to the mountains beyond.
A void of the Town Hall area, flooded with natural light, allows for visual connections between the levels. A south-facing outdoor terrace opens out for the café, availing of the amenity of the park. A small amount of parking is provided to the north and east of the site. The central space is top lit with a lightwell that brings light down into the centre of the plan.
“Both the client, South Dublin County Council, and ourselves are very happy with the end product,” Clancy Construction contracts manager John McDonald says.
“Our site team and the client team worked in collaboration, which included a series of workshops and meetings, to achieve the final product. Thanks to some terrific teamwork with great buy-in from subcontractors, the end goal has been achieved.
“The project commenced in May 2022 and was handed over in January of this year. At its peak, there were up to 100 people onsite. It was a real team effort. It would be remiss of me not to mention the input of project manager Rita O’Neill, site manager Shane Kennedy, assistant site manager Cillian Burke, lead architect Ruth O’Herlihy of McCullough Mulvin Architects, assisted by James Browne, structural engineer Ian Crehan and M&E engineer Shane O’Brien of IN2 Engineering.”
One challenge was the early benchmark on concrete. This set the standard for a fair faced concrete finish on the remainder of the items on the project. Another challenge was identifying long lead-in time items such as windows, curtain walling and other bespoke items. Early procurement to help with the speed of design and manufacture thanks to efficient and effective supply chains assisted in the project handover.
Clancy communicated with the local communities throughout the entire project. When carrying out challenging tasks, poster drops and leaflet drops provided local residents and South Dublin County Council with regular information. This helped to negate any tension or unhappiness due to the transparency that was present.
Quality, Health & Safety and Sustainability are three of Clancy’s core values, so from the beginning to the end of the project, these were planned and executed to a fine art. Everyone present on site, including all subcontractors and the design team, adopted and adhered to these values, thus helping to achieve a quality built, sustainable project with an excellent Health & Safety record too.
In summary, the project demonstrated construction excellence due to Clancy working in partnership and collaboration with the client, design teams and subcontractors. Drive through attention to detail and ‘do it right first’ were the main goals in delivery. The use of the Lean construction method called Pull Planner system contributed greatly and helped subcontractors achieve success as well.
Clancy’s motto is ‘Built on Partnership’. This partnership approach reinforces collaboration and teamwork, and lends itself to an air of inclusivity between all parties involved in the project.
The long-established main contractor has raised its profile within the industry to compete at the highest level. This has resulted in increases in turnover which the company expects will continue in the years ahead. Clancy’s continual investment in technology ensures that the client benefits from the efficiencies gained by it, and that they have access to important innovations such as BIM and Offsite Construction.
Health & Safety is paramount, especially in this post-Covid era. Clancy operates safety systems onsite to the highest standards. It has been a Safe T Grade-A certified company for many years. These excellent safety standards give clients the peace of mind that Clancy operates its safety management system to one of the highest standards that can be achieved in the industry.
Clancy Construction
Ballylusky,
Drangan,
Thurles,
Co. Tipperary.
Telephone: 052 91 52166
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.clancy.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, July 2024, Vol 10 No 7
