Publication
Reconstruction of wall at Lansdowne House - context note
Published on
Last updated on
In 2021, the Office of Public Works (OPW) was carrying out an on-site building inspection of a Government owned office building at Lansdowne House in Dublin 4. During this inspection, the OPW found that a boundary wall was unsafe and for health and safety reasons, would have to be replaced.
The 2m high boundary wall spanning approximately 70m of the site perimeter was built in the 1960’s. The wall had become unstable over time as it was originally constructed without a foundation by its developers at that time.
In order to address the safety concerns this posed, the OPW had to dismantle and rebuild the wall. Given the site is in an Architectural Conservation Area, the OPW retained the existing blocks, as far as possible, and rebuilt the wall in accordance with the original design.
These works were procured and costed under the OPW’s framework for building maintenance works in line with market rates.
The cost of dismantling the wall was €21,500 ex VAT. The cost of rebuilding the wall was €180,000 ex VAT against an original estimate of €188,000 ex VAT. Much of this cost was associated with the new foundations and necessary steel structure reinforcement, as outlined in the table below.
The total costs involved in the wall removal and reconstruction was €201,500 ex VAT in line with the original estimate.
Separate to these costs associated with dismantling and rebuilding the wall, as work progressed, contractors unearthed a high voltage live electricity cable which posed a serious health and safety risk. The ESB was informed and requested to divert the cable.
This complication led to very significant delays as well as increased costs. This element of the project required third party involvement to enable site access and safe completion of the works with resultant delays and associated costs.
Among the extra costs incurred were €54,000 to the ESB to redirect the live wire, and €82,000 ancillary costs associated with this work, including fencing, barriers and traffic management for the duration of the project.
In addition, €61,500 was paid to Dublin City Council, as footpaths and public parking had to be closed off in order to carry out the work safely.
The total additional cost due the discovery of the live wire cable was €211,300 ex VAT. A full breakdown of the costs can be found in the table below.
The high voltage live electricity cable was safely redirected and this work is now complete.
The fact that the live wire was found, which posed a serious health and safety risk introduced an unforeseen complexity into the project, increasing the time and costs involved.
