Belturbet bypass to be partly opened 'within weeks'

Paul Neilan

A section of the long-awaited Belturbet bypass will open in ‘weeks rather than months’, after contractual matters on the multi-million euro project are squared away.
The bypass had been projected to be at least one year late despite a budgeted cost to the tax-payer of almost €10 million a kilometre.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) had previously confirmed to this paper that the deadline of February of this year for the much-needed €61 million project has now been pushed back to the first quarter of next year on the stretch of road measuring just 6.7 kilometres beset by environmental difficulties during construction.
Now, a stretch of the road is to be opened in weeks, according to Director of Road Services at Cavan County Council Joe McLoughlin.
Mr McLoughlin, however, did confirm that the bridge section over Aghnaguig Bog will be “significantly” delayed due to environmental issues.
The section of the road due to open in the coming weeks is the Staghall Roundabout to Drumalure stretch, which has appeared ready for months, but the council says safety features must be put in place before any public use.
Queries from this paper about the details of the deal were sent to Spanish company Ferrovial Agroman.
“We have experienced several issues which have imposed important delays to the Project ‘N3-Butlersbridge to Belturbert Improvement Scheme’. Should you require further information I would recommend that you approach to Cavan County Council on this regard,” said a spokesperson for the construction giants.
The Celt repeated its queries to Ferrovial on the details of the deal and asked in addition, if questions were not being answered, why were they not being answered.
We were told they were ‘contractual’ issues.
“All the questions from Anglo Celt Newspaper are related to the contractual relationships between Cavan Co Co and Ferrovial Agroman, these issues would be dealt with between the parties following the contract dispositions.
“Ferrovial and Cavan Co Co are currently focused and committed to providing, as soon as possible, to the Cavan County residents and general road-users a high-standard national road that will highly improve the road safety standards in the Belturbert area.
“The project team aspires that it will be recognised as one of the best projects of the year and a good show-case for Cavan construction industry capabilities to the country,” said the second response, before again suggesting contacting the council.

Contract
In March of 2011 Ferrovial announced on their website that the contract was worth €25 million - Cavan County Council now says that figure is actually €23 million.
The rest of the cost is made up of purchasing land, planning and architectural fees, environmental studies and so on, making up the remainder of what the NRA confirmed as €61 million.
Back then, the Mardrid-based company estimated work to be completed on the road and two bridges by February of this year. The council’s website says that work commenced on the project in May 2011.
Responding to a previous query from this paper, Cavan County Council replied:
“Works are continuing on the N3 Butlersbridge to Belturbet Road Improvement Scheme with a large proportion of the scheme now nearing completion.
“Despite the main contractor, Ferrovial Agroman PT McWilliams Joint Venture, experiencing some delays initially, the construction phase is now well-advanced.”
“This project includes two significant bridge structures in the middle of the scheme, one over River Erne where works are ongoing and the other, the Aghnaguig Bog Bridge, although behind schedule works at this structure are now progressing well,” they said.

Challenging
Mr McLoughlin said the bridge over the bog was “a particularly challenging piece of engineering” and that the bog itself was known to environmental experts as “a crown jewel in terms of Irish bogs”.
He said the stretch of the road to be opened depended on “a few safety issues”, such as signage, and contractual agreement.
He added: “Personally, I think it is great, in a broader sense, that we have these problems, it means we are progressing and in a difficult operational environment.”
Earlier this month the NRA described the delay as “significant”.
“Work is not completed and the contractor is behind for full completion, which is now the first quarter of 2014.
“It’s a significant delay and any contractual matters will be dealt with through formal processes,” said the spokesperson.