School construction firm issues apology to families kept awake through the night
By Mary Dennehy
THE construction firm working on the new Gaelscoil in Firhouse has issued an apology to local families, after parents and children were kept awake through the night due to work on site.
According to residents, the site was lit up and noisy until around 5am last Friday morning, as crews continued to work - with The Echo being sent video footage captured by residents, which shows work continuing into the early hours.
The new school is being built on a green space in close proximity to a high number of homes, with frustrated and tired residents even turning to Rathfarnham Garda Station for help in the early hours.
One resident told The Echo: “My family didn’t sleep at all.
“From my recollection, the work continued right through the night until around 5am when it eased off but the site was back up-and-running at 7am.
“The noise from the generators was unreal and there was machinery in operation and strong lights.”
The resident added: “There’s been work on that site for more than four years now – between prefabs being put up and then the school buildings – and residents have been very complacent.
“People don’t complain and I think that’s why the builders took a chance, they took advantage of residents.
“What people are asking now is, will the council take action or impose a fine on the builders so that this doesn’t happen again.”
Construction firm Western Building Systems is working on behalf of the Department of Education, which, when contacted by The Echo, said that it had been in communication with the company involved.
The Department also forwarded The Echo a statement from contractor Western, which cited longer than anticipated work due to cold weather as the reason for the late night shift.
According to Eamon Boyle of Western: “My sincerest apologies for any inconvenience caused to the local residents.
“[The work carried out] now completes all floor pours for this project.
“Unfortunately due to the recent cold weather the floor pour took longer than anticipated.
“We did anticipate that works might continue out of hours and did notify South Dublin County Council of this.”
Mr Boyle added: “We commenced the floor pour at 7.30am and it was nine degrees.
“The concrete pour was complete by approximately 1pm. The floor then had to be power floated but due to the temperature constantly dropping the floors did not set until approximately 8pm and therefore we could not power float until this time.
“At that stage the temperature was approximately two degrees. We could not leave the floors uncomplete and unfortunately we had to power float through the night as we were at the mercy of the temperatures.
“I again apologise for any inconvenience caused. There will not be any further out of hours works carried out on this project.”
When asked if action would be taken South Dublin County Council said: “On the basis that we have an assurance that this will not happen again, there are no plans to take action at this time.”
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