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Repair works on Dublin school that forced closure of one of its buildings 'could take up to a year'

School management have pledged that all students will be accomodated after the mid-term break.

IT COULD TAKE up to a year to repair structural issues that have forced the closure of part of a north Dublin school.

Transition Year students at Ardgillan Community College in Balbriggan have been asked to remain at home and other classes have been moved because of the issues.

A total of 200 students have been affected by the 18 classrooms that have been put out of use.

The phase 1 school building was completed in 2009, with phase 2 completed in 2015.

A fire safety assessment of phase 1 was carried out and necessary works are currently being done to address issues flagged during this assessment.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme today, CEO of the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board Paddy Lavelle said that fire safety works being carried out at the school identified that ties which should be holding to the outer leaf of the building to the inner leaf were missing.

Lavelle said that Transition Year students have been asked not to come to school but that he expects all students to be provided for after the upcoming mid-term break. He added, however, that some students may have classes outside the school.

“We’d expect that after the mid-term break we’ll be able to accommodate all students in some place, whether it’s there in the school premises or elsewhere. In other accommodation in the area or in prefabs on the site. It’ll take some time to get prefabs on the site,” he said. 

Lavelle said it was difficult to give a timeline for completion of the remedial works but that it could take some time.

Once the structural engineer opens up some more we’ll know more. But at the moment we have to leave the building unoccupied for safety reasons.

“It will take some time to remediate the works, so it could take up to a year.”

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36 Comments
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    Mute Dan
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 9:13 AM

    Does anyone actually sign off on the building works as its being done…ie check a few things here and there…or do the builders just say its grand?

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    Mute Bruce van der Gutschmitzer
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 9:19 AM

    @Dan: They were aware of structural issues way earlier than this yet all of a sudden they ‘discover’ them. The teachers and students are just lucky enough that an inspection took place on Friday and someone unassociated to the DDLETB and building company discovered the damage and then forced a breaking of the story. A quick read of the DDLETB website is peppered with lies and straight up BS. The children, parents and staff are then told nothing and it’s business as usual when really the school should be closed early for proper provisions put in place. The head of the DDLETB, Paddy Lavelle, has a lot to answer for here. He’s making this up as he goes along.

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    Mute Nick Caffrey
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 9:20 AM

    @Dan: No. No-one signs off. They just trust the builder. Ireland doesn’t do standards apart from food and agriculture.

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    Mute Gavin R
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 9:20 AM

    @Dan: really do you need to ask that with all the shoddy works coming to light from the boom you should have answered your own question.

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    Mute Dan
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 10:11 AM

    @Gavin R: yes understand but phase 2 was In 2015, way after the boom I believe. Would have expected better oversight if issues where in that phase

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    Mute Ger Murphy
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 10:33 AM

    @Dan: Was this the same school that a Student threatened to shoot people in if they turned up for school last week? didn’t hear it in the main stream media???
    https://www.thesun.ie/news/3229508/school-balbriggan-dublin-shut-teen-arrested-chilling-school-shooting-threat/

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    Mute Paddington C.
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 11:14 AM

    @Ger Murphy: the Sun is part if the mainstream media…

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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 9:25 AM

    This is the 3rd school or 3rd level college I’ve heard about in the last year with exactly the same structural issue, that is, the inner and outer walls are not structurally tied together. As far as I know the process to do it during the build is extremely simple, they put metal rods into the setting concrete, hardly rocket science.
    Big concern is, hard to detect in a finished building as you have to cut into the fabric of the building, and a nightmare to fix. How many other buildings are affected that we don’t know about?

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    Mute Gerard M. Corbett
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 11:38 AM

    @Vocal Outrage: Not really. Endoscope inspection or even metal detector. Replacement cavity wall tie work is quite straightforward and relatively inexpensive.

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    Mute Johnny Mason
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 12:09 PM

    @Gerard M. Corbett: Not if the foundations need under pinning !

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    Mute Gerard M. Corbett
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 12:28 PM

    @Johnny Mason: I may not have the full information but it says there in the article that the issue is the external walls have not been tied together. I didn’t see any mention of an issue with foundations

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    Mute Johnny Mason
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 12:42 PM

    @Gerard M. Corbett: They would never have known that unless the cracks started to appear and most cracks are due to settlement when checking the wall the issue of wall ties joining the 2 leafs would of came up as another problem once these walls have movement a wall tie of the ordinary make will not be strong enough to prevent the existing movement so it would/might be necessary in places for under pinning but you may be correct without all the information its unclear and if insulation was inserted it is also the job of the wall tie to keep it in place or it is absolutely useless

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    Mute Gerard M. Corbett
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 12:57 PM

    @Johnny Mason: Not disagreeing with you there Johnny like you said non of us have all the facts. However the missing cavity wall ties became apparent during the fire safety checks. The only way this would arise in these circumstances would be if the inspector was checking for cavity wall fire barriers. The only (non destructive) way of doing this is by using an endoscope. This is more than likely what lead to the discovery of no or too few cavity wall ties.

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    Mute John Moylan
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 11:53 PM

    @Vocal Outrage: open to correction, but WBS buildings aren’t made of concrete. .

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    Mute Brian Martin
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 10:45 AM

    Why is the building company not named.?they are at fault and should be held responsible
    What other schools have they built for the state. Are other schools going to be checked.. there are building regulations I assume ..were these not followed

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    Mute Kerrydone
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 11:08 AM

    @Brian Martin: The Design&Build contract route needs to be binned. If proper oversight is fully put in place througout the build/design process I can’t see it being more economical than a standard contract to construct.

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    Mute Tuskar Rock
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 5:55 PM

    @Kerrydone: Worst of shoddy workmanship and a sad comment on the abandonment of the traditional forms of contract, which would have had a Resident Engineer and/or Clerk of Works on site, frequent inspections, and quality checking to ensure that proper standards were being maintained.
    For public works, Design & Build contacts are bad; Design, Build, and Operate/Maintain contracts are worse, and Public-Private-Partnerships are the ultimate scam. Imho, of course.

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    Mute Johnny Mason
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 9:49 AM

    everything connected to the Building Industry particular the Banking and Insurance , bonds and tenders contracts needs complete tearing down and a fresh beginning !

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    Mute Toomasu Sumitsu
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 2:44 PM

    @Johnny Mason: they did that already. It’s called BCAR.

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    Mute Dublin Gooner
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 10:18 AM

    Rosmini in north Dublin have been in Porta Cabins since 2013

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    Mute CharliesAngel
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 11:30 AM

    Why will it take nearly a year to carry out the repair works? Is there an embargo on hiring builders to get the work done? I can’t understand unnecessary delays like this. It’s a school. The issues that caused the building to be closed are known, so fix them.

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    Mute Gerard M. Corbett
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 12:41 PM

    @CharliesAngel: If the problem is missing or absent cavity wall ties there is a relatively quick and inexpensive solution which would resolve the issue in a matter of days or weeks. Definitely not a year.

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    Mute Trevor O Driscoll
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 10:50 AM

    Who build it?

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    Mute Kerrydone
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 11:22 AM

    @Trevor O Driscoll: Western Building Systems from Tyrone

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    Mute Michael Kavanagh
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 11:31 AM

    @Kerrydone:
    Time them boyos get a hard border between them and future work!

    35
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    Mute DeFonz
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 1:27 PM

    Name of the Architect
    Who signed the certificate of completion?

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    Mute HybridDsl
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 3:09 PM

    I didn’t know Ireland was overrun by Africans yet ? Nice photo !! Wtf !!!

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    Mute Cathy Carroll
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 3:18 PM

    @HybridDsl: quite a high African population in Balbriggan

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    Mute MiseBean
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 9:27 PM

    @Cathy Carroll: curb your nastiness please.

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    Mute Shane Farrell
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 1:05 PM

    If whoever gets the gig of fixing it will budget, as an example now, for 20 men by say 10 months. Is it not possible to do it with 200 men in 1 month?

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    Mute Tuskar Rock
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 6:06 PM

    @Shane Farrell: Unlikely to be that simple. Big school, 850 or so pupils, and they have to fix a problem that may be quite extensive, while trying to keep the the place operational. A background chorus of hammer-drills is not really much of an aid to education.

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    Mute Justin McNulty
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 10:07 PM

    @Shane Farrell: no

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    Mute Lisa Byrne
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 12:34 PM

    If they start using pre fabs and the school is in a disadvantaged area,I feel like this will take more than a year. Sure they have prefabs it’s better than nothing, people will say.

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    Mute Stephen Maher
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 10:15 PM

    “Rapid build”, hardly surprising.

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    Mute John Moylan
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 11:55 PM

    @Stephen Maher: nothing to with it. Shoddy is shoddy no matter how long you take to build it.

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    Mute Damien McGrath
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    Oct 22nd 2018, 7:07 PM

    Give the job to someone with the worst price,they do it,no government engineer looks at anything in the process and the builder can cut all the costs anyway he wants in the job,REGULATION???how much money wasted again?this government has changed nothing.up fast and will come down fast!

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