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[Article] Engineering firm sues NRA over €340m M1 contract

24-05-2004 9:36pm

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Victor

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http://www.sbpost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-819700926-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FNews.asp

Engineering firm sues NRA over e340m M1 contract
16/05/04 00:00
By Eamonn Quinn, Business Editor

One of the state's largest civil engineering companies has taken the National Roads Authority (NRA) to the High Court over the awarding of a contract worth e340 million to another company.

SIAC is suing the NRA over the contract to extend the M1 motorway north of Dundalk. A spokeswoman for the NRA confirmed that it was the first time that the body had been taken to court over a contract based on a public-private partnership (PPP).

It is not clear what the implications of the legal dispute will be for other planned PPP contracts, or whether it will delay the construction of the 11-kilometre Dundalk Western bypass.

The road, which will eventually lead to the construction of an uninterrupted motorway leading from Dublin to Newry, is expected to open in 2006.

SIAC's case has been scheduled for a High Court hearing on June 11. The NRA is defending the action.

In 2000, SIAC won e3.1 million in compensation from Limerick County Council when a contract for the construction of the e33.1 million Adare to Limerick road was awarded to Pat Mulcair Ltd, which tendered the second lowest bid.

Since the case, the NRA has brought the awarding of major road contracts under its control. Peter Malone, former managing director of the Jurys Doyle Hotel, is chairman of the NRA.

The NRA formally awarded the Dundalk M1 contract to the Celtic Roads Group last February. The consortium includes the Irish company NTR, Dutch firm HBG Ascon, Spain's Dragados Concesiones de Infraestructuras and British firm Edmund Nuttall.

Under the complex PPP contract, Celtic Roads will build the new road and maintain it for 30 years.

The new road will begin near the Xerox factory south of Dundalk and stretch northwards to Ballymascanlan, Co Louth. The consortium is due to maintain a further 43 kilometres of existing motorway, including the M1 Boyne bridge.

In return, the consortium will recoup some of the tolls on the Drogheda motorway. The NRA had estimated that the total cost of the contract would have reached e340 million, including an estimated e160 million for building the new 11-kilometre road.

SIAC had previously helped build stretches of the M1 motorway south of Drogheda and parts of the Boyne bridge. Other PPP schemes across the country are due to be awarded later this year.

A SIAC spokesperson was unavailable for comment.

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