Work on stadium north stand to start in third quarter of year
By Aideen O'Flaherty
CONSTRUCTION work on the development of a new North Stand, modifications to the wheelchair accessible seating area of the South Stand, and a changing places facility that will be located within the South Stand of Tallaght Stadium, is expected to commence in the last quarter of this year.
The new North Stand will have a capacity of over 2,000 seats, while the inclusion of a changing places facility follows on from Tallaght Community Council calling for a fully accessible changing facility to be included in the plans for the stadium last September.
The new north stand work will start in Tallaght Stadium later this year
When the €7.7m upgrade plans were passed by councillors at the full council meeting last June, it was heralded as “a great news story for the area” by Fianna Fáil councillor Charlie O’Connor.
The plans then received approval under the Part 8 public consultation process at last October’s council meeting, and an update on the project was provided at Monday’s meeting of the Tallaght Area Committee.
South Dublin County Council stated that, at present, detailed design work on the development is being undertaken by their design team, while the tender for the construction work is expected to be published during the second quarter of 2021.
The council previously advertised a tender for the design build contract for the pre-cast concrete structure for the proposed North Stand at the end of last year.
The local authority stated: “The preferred bidder from this tender process will be novated as a specialist subcontractor to the main contractor, following a separate tender process due to take place in Q2 2021.”
Following the tender process for the main contractor, the council expects construction work at Tallaght Stadium to commence in the last quarter of 2021.
It is anticipated that the works will take approximately 15 months to complete, with all works expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2023, according to the council.
South Dublin County Council also noted that they hoped “that the situation regarding Covid will not result in changes to this timetable.”
Tallaght Stadium first opened in 2009 and it has hosted the Special Olympics’ opening ceremony in 2018, Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid debut, and rugby union and rugby league fixtures.
Airtricity League club Shamrock Rovers lease the council-owned stadium, and it is also the home of the Senior Women’s FAI team and men’s underage teams.
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