Eyre Square

toiletduck

More delays, ffs when will it all end??

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0627/galway.html

TerrorFirmer

Well, I actually loved it the way it was tbh....lol

I find it might be a little to caught up in being modern to give us the enjoyment the original one did!

But about that article, what a fucking disgrace jesus how long has it been now and the amount they have to show for it is a joke

toiletduck

yeah, i liked the "old" one aswell. i sincerly hope it's finished before next summer!

rabbitinlights

Fúck sake..........

They just quit? They should be shot.

NakedGalwegian

There's only one thing for it:

http://www.geocities.com/nakedgalway/9-jcb.htm

fun bus

NakedGalwegian wrote:

There's only one thing for it:

http://www.geocities.com/nakedgalway/9-jcb.htm

True,but since the construction company has pulled out, they dont even have the jcbs there anymore. they should leave it the way it is and try to pass it off as "modern art". they could say it is a metaphor for the lack of commitment in a hurly-burly, future world gone awry.

The Free Man

ha, i just heard on todayfm, that the empire state building was built quicker than it's taken so far on eyre square :rolleyes:

Asok

Bring in gamma and we will have it done by the end of the week

Tar.Aldarion

hmm ive never seen eyre square not all dug up....maybe i never shall

irishgeo

was up there the last day and **** me its a mess. It looks like something that ran out of money and its left as is.

The new traffic layout is a ****ing nightmare as well.

mike65

I take it the city council can and will sue the contractor. Anyone got some pics of this legendary location?

Mike.

po0k

The company/company's workers are protesting the loss of jobs and livelihood of ~70 Polish workers who have been left in the lurch by a Portumna-based construction company which closed last Thursday.

Sherifu

If I wasn't from Galway i'd be laughing at this story on the news this evening.
City manager Joe McGrath saying he was 'disappointed' doesn't quite cut it.
This project was very badly planned, contracted and carried out.
May we shoot the council, hang kingston construction and bury them all
in a mass grave in Eyre Sq.?
Keith Finnegan show should be funny tomorrow.

Sponge Bob

Get Buckfast PLC and Red Bull Corp to sponsor it as the Late Night After Supermacs Adventure Playground and Baytin Emporium .....exactly as it is today . Make it look like we <ahem> planned it that way. We can claim that some local Gaudi had a vision in another 50 years or so .

Redhairedguy

Got some more bad news for you, chaps!

No one will take the project! Doesn't look like anyone wants it.
Chance of it been finished before I begin withdrawing my pension... very slim.

Hah... the place is rightly f**ked now!

BTW, I'm 68, I'm getting my pension on Friday.

Fobia

I think everyone foresaw that eyre square wasn't going to be developed according to their plans - this is Ireland, not a country where things get done.

Only thing I never understood was: what was wrong with the old one?

po0k

It was in dire need of becoming a hole in which to spend the excess in the budget to guarantee the same amount be allocated in the coming years.

toiletduck

mike65 wrote:

I take it the city council can and will sue the contractor. Anyone got some pics of this legendary location?

Mike.

watch the "progress" here...

http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/webcam/

Sherifu

toiletduck wrote:

watch the "progress" here...

http://www.galwayadvertiser.ie/dws/webcam/

A time lapse of this webcam would show:

on average 2.5 men on site
pipes being moved from one side of the site to the other
holes and piles of dirt appearing and disappearing

Tar.Aldarion

what did it look like before?what was wrong with it and what were they trying to do with it?

danniemcq

before it was great kinda chilled like the arch with loadsa trees and stuff and i don't think anyone really knows why it was dug up. i heard before it started they were meant to make the whole area wi-fi

Dundhoone

its very unusual for a contractor to just abandon site. The council can get another contractor in to complete the work and the original contractor pays for this completion under the terms of the contract. Considering the stage of the work and the high profile of the job, the contractor must be in some serious financial poo.

Theres very little strong arming you can do to speed up a contractor who looked to be in good financial standing at the start and then goes belly up, and it explains in some ways why its taken so long.

Sponge Bob

Dundhoone wrote:

its very unusual for a contractor to just abandon site. The council can get another contractor in to complete the work and the original contractor pays for this completion under the terms of the contract.

The contractor has apparently been paid €3m but has a €1m Completion Bond that can be called in by the Corpo reducing the monies to €2m .

The problem now is that the contractor will go into liquidation and that the contract will be an asset in that liquidation , the contractor has apparently removed all his machinery to Wales .

Between the Bond and the Contract as Asset and the Liquidator and the sorting out of same in the High Court there is no chance that the Contract will be retendered and reawarded for at least a year if not more . I would now expect the square to be finished in 2007 / 2008 at the earliest and most likely the latter.

The best that we can hope for is that the entire square gets fenced off behind a high hoarding which is painted in nice bright colours and maintained graffitti free and that the southern and northern ends of the square are promptly restored to 2 lane traffic operation ...and a zebra crossing at the AIB again NOW FFS and a bit of line painting to keepo the traffic moving .

It seems that a similar episode happened in Galway 2 years ago when a corpo contractor legged it leaving behind some unfinished buildings. The contract has not been restarted since despite the contractor not being in liquidation. Thats stuck in some arbitration or other , the new contractors are still not appointed or even on site.

I fully expect the Corpo legal and management bods to make a complete balls of their initial dealings with the liquidator thereby prolonging this fiasco to the absolute max.

danniemcq

ok if anyone wants to see what it lkooked like before they dug it all up get a copy of this weeks connacht sentinel they have a full page of pics near the back sport pages. don't have a scanner here so sorry can't post them up

Tar.Aldarion

connacht sentinal never heard of that baby...rummages

LegacyUser

Apart from everything that has happened on the site and the various delays all along, the City Manager has some serious questions to answer:

1. A few weeks back ,the City Tribune had a story saying that the Health and Safety Authority had visited the site and considered closing it down.

The following week, the Manager (Joe McGrath) went on Keith Finnegan's show on GBFM and said the story was completely untrue and the HSA never visited the site. A statement was issued to other media outlets in the city saying the story in the Tribune was totally untrue. The HSA have since issued a statement saying they did visit the site on a number of occasions and had spoken with Mr McGrath. Lie No. 1.

2. The same paper had a story the following week saying that SIPTU had strong concerns about working conditions on the site and pay. They said they had voiced their concerns to Joe McGrath and Director of Services Tom Connell. McGrath denied having had any contact with SIPTU. He also cut across Councillor Tom Costello at a Council meeting two weeks ago when cllr Costello raised the SIPTU issue. McGrath said it was nonsense and untrue that SIPTU had gotten involved and kept cutting across the councillor, provoking Costello to walk out of the meeting.

Cllr Michael Leahy also walked out of the meeting when he was refused the opportunity to ask questions by McGrath, who, under the Council's Standing Orders, has no right to do so.

On Keith Finnegan's show this morning, McGrath said he had spoken with SIPTU in the first week of June, thereby exposing Lie No. 2.

3. At that same council meeting, the Manager lost his temper with Councillor Padraic Conneely who demanded that all documentation between Kingston Construction, the Council and SIPTU be made available to him. McGrath said Conneely should go and ask Kingston Construction for the documents. He also became quite annoyed that the Eyre Square issue was back on the agenda at the meeting and complained that there were no issues there.

How apt that Conneely would call kingston construction a "cowboy operator".

McGrath, like every dog on the street, knew for weeks that the Square was going down the pan.

He has some serious questions to answer.

po0k

So where is the lynch mod congregating?

LegacyUser

In reference to Sykpak's comment, I have always seen the lighter side of things, but, having my own business in town that has been seriously affected by the "work" in Eyre Square, I cannot see the funny side of this debacle.

Why are the majority of the local media keen not to apportion blame? Certainly, the number one issue is to get the Square up and running, but does that mean we completely forget about the people in the City Council who are wasting taxpayer's money (and costing this city a fortune).

Example: Joe McGrath on Finnegan's show this mornihg. Finnegan's first question was about the true February 2006 deadline as opposed to the Council's publicised deadline of october 2005 (which in the last few weeks magically changed to November). McGrath avoided the question and Finnegan didn't chase it up. But, hey, maybe that's just bad journalism.

Sorry Syxpak, I'm sure that was in jest, but if you had gone through what I've been through in the last 18 months, you wouldn't be laughing either.

nadir

wow, theve been at it for a long time ok. I wonder how long it will take, at this rate hte council would have been better off doing it themselves.

po0k

monga - I agree wholeheartedly with you.

The comment was 'light-hearted' but it was not in jest. A blocading of McGrath's car/office or barricading him into the toilet might be an idea. It's scandelous and you just know someone's making money on the side while the square is left in a Dresden-esque condition.

JohnCleary

danniemcq wrote:

before it was great kinda chilled like the arch with loadsa trees and stuff and i don't think anyone really knows why it was dug up. i heard before it started they were meant to make the whole area wi-fi

Great... So knackers can just grab peoples laptops now!
Go Galway County Council! :rolleyes:

toiletduck

SyxPak wrote:

A blocading of McGrath's car/office or barricading him into the toilet might be an idea.

hear hear!

Robbo

danniemcq wrote:

before it was great kinda chilled like the arch with loadsa trees and stuff and i don't think anyone really knows why it was dug up. i heard before it started they were meant to make the whole area wi-fi

No need for municipal WiFi in the Square. There's enough misconfiguration of APs in the area for a good ould session.

po0k

ssshh Robbo

Sponge Bob

The councillors are afraid of McGrath so they wont sack him and he wont care what they say and do about him if they wont sack him

Thats why the councillors put P O Ceidigh (not a Galway man but a Spiddle man ) in charge of a 'task force on eyre square' when they themselves should be the task force or so you would think .

Mc Grath will refuse to meet the task force in public to answer anything significant.

If he does answer questions he will baffle them with legalese. Expect the taskforce to do nothing useful ....ever.

NakedGalwegian

Ah sure **** it - where's me shovel?

I'll go and finish it meself.

Be done in time for Race Week if the lads help.

Put the kettle on - looks like we're having us an ol' fashioned Square Renovation!

Asok

"Little Girl: Whats going on"
"Nakedgalwegian: It's an old fashioned hole diggin! lordy its been a while!"

Sponge Bob

Rather than a Boards Beer why not announce a Boards Dig in Galway for the Sunday before race week. Make sure the Advertiser and Tribune are informed well in advance of the impending arrival of a flood of geeks with shovels

Then all off to O Connells , shovels and all, for a few pints and a planning meeting (a la the Corpo) .

Anyone can come as long as they bring their shovel.

po0k

I'd be up for it...

Dundhoone

Sponge Bob wrote:

.

Between the Bond and the Contract as Asset and the Liquidator and the sorting out of same in the High Court there is no chance that the Contract will be retendered and reawarded for at least a year if not more . I would now expect the square to be finished in 2007 / 2008 at the earliest and most likely the latter.

Thats an interesting point of view. however with the contractor defaulting on his contract, the council are within their rights to re-tender immediately although charging the remainder of the work to kingston might be a bit pointless. At least with the 3m paid they have gotten 3m worth of work plus raw materials. Some of the councillors statements of "why wasnt the contractor given advance payments to keep him afloat " were so childishly stupid as to be nearly beyond belief. As far as I remember, this Eyre square redev was not Joe mc Graths idea, he's just inherited this ****storm. Tom O'connell is a genuine nice, hardworking guy. The contractor would have been financially checked out before the contract was awarded to him, outside of that the city council have no control over him going belly up. The conditions of contract being used in this country have little in the way of built in penalties for delays - theres a weak clause, but its just not implemented if the contractor is making some sort of reasonable progress.


I really dont have a very high opinion of our city councillors to be honest. Lots of mouth, little education, and few braincells. though theres probably a few decent ones in there somewhere. Reading the reports on the council meetings is often like an episode of neighbours. Bloodly little children. We really should have some sort of IQ testing for the people we have to represent us.

LegacyUser

Sponge Bob wrote:

The councillors are afraid of McGrath so they wont sack him

They do not have the power to sack him.

P O Ceidigh (not a Galway man but a Spiddle man ) in charge of a 'task force on eyre square' when they themselves should be the task force or so you would think .

The idea of the task force is to have a fair representative spread from the local authority, tourism, business and construction sector. They are a wealth of experience between them He's a hugely successful businessman. So what if he's not from the city, and it's not like Spiddal is that far outside town these days.

Anyway, Bernard Duffy, Stephen Mackey and John Concannon aren't from Galway either.

Mc Grath will refuse to meet the task force in public to answer anything significant.

There was never an intention for the meetings to be held in public.

If he does answer questions he will baffle them with legalese.

Obviosuly you have NEVER met the guy.

Sponge Bob

monga_ringpull wrote:

They do not have the power to sack him.

Ahh , so he is not really answerable to the councillors .

The idea of the task force is to have a fair representative spread from the local authority, tourism, business and construction sector. They are a wealth of experience between them He's a hugely successful businessman. So what if he's not from the city, and it's not like Spiddal is that far outside town these days.

Anyway, Bernard Duffy, Stephen Mackey and John Concannon aren't from Galway either.

The idea behind the task force (I'd say) is that the council and the councillors are incapable of sorting out the mess in this decade so they will try to dump it on someone else .

There was never an intention for the meetings to be held in public.

Ahh. Expect lots of action so

Obviosuly you have NEVER met the guy.

Mc Grath, No. Not interested either unless he's buying the beers

Seems the council had the same idea as I last week. Get the square to 2 lane operation for the races.

After that its simply a case of board it and hoard it up and get the peds crossing at the AIB and thats that for 2005 then .

No combination of task force/ corpo / corpo member will get it moving this year I am sorry to say.

toiletduck

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0721/galway.html

so now their saying it should be finished by next march...

Sherifu

"City Manager Joe McGrath has told city council members he is still trying to find an alternative construction company to complete the scheme."
March 06 - he's pulling dates out of his arse, they haven't even got a construction company yet...

Sponge Bob

Sponge Bob wrote:

(4th of July like) Get the square to 2 lane operation for the races.

After that its simply a case of board it and hoard it up and get the peds crossing at the AIB and thats that for 2005 then .

No combination of task force/ corpo / corpo member will get it moving this year I am sorry to say.

Still nothing happening and still no contractor.

Any news from the High Powered task Force of notables ???]

nobodythere

It'd be cool to turn it into a citizens volunteer project of gardeners if a) it wasn't in such a ****ing state and b) it'd be letting the council get away with murder.

Sponge Bob

monga_ringpull wrote:

Apart from everything that has happened on the site and the various delays all along, the City Manager has some serious questions to answer:

1. A few weeks back ,the City Tribune had a story saying that the Health and Safety Authority had visited the site and considered closing it down.

The following week, the Manager (Joe McGrath) went on Keith Finnegan's show on GBFM and said the story was completely untrue and the HSA never visited the site. A statement was issued to other media outlets in the city saying the story in the Tribune was totally untrue. The HSA have since issued a statement saying they did visit the site on a number of occasions and had spoken with Mr McGrath. Lie No. 1.

We never got an explanation of that one did we.

2. The same paper had a story the following week saying that SIPTU had strong concerns about working conditions on the site and pay. They said they had voiced their concerns to Joe McGrath and Director of Services Tom Connell. McGrath denied having had any contact with SIPTU. He also cut across Councillor Tom Costello at a Council meeting two weeks ago when cllr Costello raised the SIPTU issue. McGrath said it was nonsense and untrue that SIPTU had gotten involved and kept cutting across the councillor, provoking Costello to walk out of the meeting.

The councillors never got an accurate report of that meeting from the City Manager did they ?

Cllr Michael Leahy also walked out of the meeting when he was refused the opportunity to ask questions by McGrath, who, under the Council's Standing Orders, has no right to do so.

We all know who runs the council , we must take his word for everything

On Keith Finnegan's show this morning, McGrath said he had spoken with SIPTU in the first week of June, thereby exposing Lie No. 2.

Inconsistency , will get to the €6m €9m €11m and €12m figures in a minute

3. At that same council meeting, the Manager lost his temper with Councillor Padraic Conneely who demanded that all documentation between Kingston Construction, the Council and SIPTU be made available to him. McGrath said Conneely should go and ask Kingston Construction for the documents. He also became quite annoyed that the Eyre Square issue was back on the agenda at the meeting and complained that there were no issues there.

Yes. The councillors have still not received any explanations for the flannel from the city manager and so to the cost.

The 'negotiations' under way at the minute are designed to produce a 'finished' Eyre Square by the end of March for €9m . This wil lead to the council claiming that the job is finished on budget .

In order to 'finish' it 'on time' some sizeable chunks have been taken out of the contract because the contractor negotiated them out in order to finish by the end of March.

These 'supplementary' works will cost €2-3m in a separate contract which will go to tender ...next year maybe ..... some time , who cares

The cost of the current 'negotiated' version of the original contract + the ' supplementary contract' will be €11m-€12m .

My own questions.

1. Has anyone heard anything from the 'Task Force ' ?
2. Is the scale model still down the eyre square centre inside the back door onto Abbeygate street
3. Have the councillors ever got an explanation about the HSE and SIPTU issues that never happened ?
4. Do we need any councillors anyway , they obviously don't count when an oul task force can do things better ?

Sponge Bob

grasshopa wrote:

It'd be cool to turn it into a citizens volunteer project of gardeners if

Full page on Galway Corpos attempt to run a pissup in a brewery inside the Irish Times . The pedestrianisation of Shop St in the 1990 's (a mere 30% over budget (plus related compo cases of which there have been many) ) is also mentioned in that article.

We look fab so we do

sceptre

monga_ringpull wrote:

They do not have the power to sack him.

Is that what they said? Apparently they do. See here.

This guy doesn't seem all that suited to the role or any management role to be honest. See how diplomatically I put that?

biko

Well, it seems it's "game on" again. I passed Eyre Sq today and lo and behold, people working up at the top digging up stuff.

Ronan|Raven

They should shoot those responisble for deciding to modernise it out of a cannon.