I have been working with Shannon Valley Group to help them find talented construction staff for the last 2 years. I recently had the opportunity to visit some of their sites to gain a greater knowledge of the type of projects they complete and thought it would be a good idea to write an article to highlight these works for anyone who may be interested in finding out more about them as a company. I was lucky enough to shadow Michelle, one of their Health and Safety advisors that I actually found the job in Shannon Valley over a year ago now.
The first site I visited was a McGarrell Reilly site in Lusk called Clonrath. Shannon Valley have been working on this site for the last 2 years, with the first phase complete and many people happily living in their new homes. The 2nd phase is currently underway and 42 houses are being built in this phase that started in February this year. It was a greenfield site and works should be completed in Spring of 2021. The showhouses are expected to open around Christmas time.
Shannon Valley’s scope of works have included 1km of mainline drainage, road development, the excavation of the site, digging foundations for houses, getting the houses to floor level and then adding services, e.g. water, gas etc. They also complete the finishing works of driveways, footpaths and kerbs.
As I walked around the site, the foreman Gerry showed me that they were pouring the floors of the houses today and that what I could see had been completed in the last 7 weeks. They were also in the process of putting in a new gas connection with Gas Networks Ireland. There was a services trench with connections ready for gas, water, ESB, Virgin Media and Eircom.
Shannon Valley are also completing works for a park development on this site.
Challenges on site have included relocating a river to maintain the road and allow for maximum green areas. They also closed the road to allow for the erection of a new pedestrian bridge and they implemented a traffic management plan to allow this to happen.
Plant on site included a 30 tonne, 21 tonne, 13 tonne and a 4.8 tonne digger and 9 and 30 tonne dumpers. There were 16 Shannon Valley staff on this site and this has now moved to 8 due to the works being completed. These included pipelayers, machine drivers and general operatives.
I then travelled to another McGarrell Reilly site around the corner in Lusk; Station Road, and met the foreman Brian. They have been on this site for the last 2 years providing site development works for houses, 40 of which have already sold and there will now be another 60 houses in this phase.
During a walkabout on-site I saw the groundworks of a new block of apartments. They were completing a deep excavation for foundations which have been 1 or 2 meters deep, depending on the ground.
The foundations of houses were just starting and Shannon Valley will be there until the end when the back gardens, walls, footpaths, roads and services will be completed, ready for the new residents.
The next Site I visited was a Glenveagh Site in Donabate (Semple Woods). The site foreman Fintan explained that this had also been a greenfield site and they had been working on it for the last 2 years with a large scope of works ahead, although they were coming to the end of their current works. It was great to see the finishes of the houses, in comparison to the last 2 sites that were still at early phases. They hope to be finished on this site before Christmas. They were completing the footpaths whilst I was there and also the kerbing. They will then lay the tarmac for the roads and connect the services e.g. Irish Water.
Shannon Valley currently have 30 sites in operation so this is only a snippet of their scope of works at present.