Features

Glenbeigh shortlisted on the double

22 Dec , 2020  

Two of Glenbeigh Construction’s outstanding projects have been shortlisted for honours at the 2020 Irish Construction Excellence Awards. In keeping with their status as industry leaders, Glenbeigh are in the running for the Fit Out or Refurbishment Over €5m award for Terminal 2, Dublin Airport Retail Duty Free while Tymon North 100 Bed Community Nursing Unit has been shortlisted in the Healthcare Building category.

The Irish Construction Excellence (ICE) Awards are essentially the Oscars of construction awards, honouring the best of the best in this vital sector of the economy. Glenbeigh Construction – one of Ireland’s leading construction companies – are regularly in the running for these prestigious awards and the fact that they were shortlisted for not one but two major awards at the 2020 ceremony epitomises the high regard in which this industry-leading operation is held.

Operations Manager Cian Ward was delighted to see Glenbeigh Construction shortlisted on the double for this year’s Gala Event at The Convention Centre, which was originally scheduled for March 28th but – due to the widespread disruptions caused by the global pandemic – will now take place at a future date:

“It’s nice recognition for the hard work that our teams have put into these projects and it’s always humbling to get that recognition,” the former Meath footballer notes. “When you consider all the hard work and dedication that our people are investing into their work, it’s nice to see those efforts being celebrated and acknowledged.”

It’s quite an achievement to be nominated in two distinct categories for projects completed during one calendar year – an achievement which underlines Glenbeigh’s versatility, flexibility and consistency as well as their celebrated professionalism and dependability. “Indeed, to be nominated in more than one category is very pleasing because it gives us an opportunity to showcase our flexibility as well as the high standard of workmanship we can deliver for our clients.”

Shortlisted as Healthcare Building of the Year, the Tymon North project is a new state-of-the-art community nursing home campus, built by Glenbeigh Construction for the HSE. The unit provides 100 new nursing home beds within a purpose-built campus, adjacent to Tymon Park in Tallaght, Dublin 24.

This development is of the highest specification with all bedrooms en-suite. It comprised a full kitchen and dining installations, pharmacy, commercial laundry facilities day, rooms and rest areas, recreation rooms, physio areas, various treatment rooms, clinical rooms administration areas, seven separate sensory gardens, various family and visitor rooms and a feature, three-storey welcoming glass atrium.

The project’s overriding brief was to solve the onerous technical and medical requirements for such a unit while also meeting the overall need to create a home from home feeling for the residents. This brief has been achieved through the robust design and material submittal and system approval process which was undertaking throughout the project and with full co-ordination with the mechanical and electrical teams.

With most features having multiple functions and interdependencies, this was the best approach in meeting all the clients’ requirements.

The building campus includes a new extensively-landscaped car park and curtilage. The footprint is approximately 3100m2 (6500m2 overall floor) and is cleverly burrowed into a two-acre site by a split-level design so that the building elevation is over two stories to the north and the ground level reduces to the south to achieve the third level while maintaining the overall elevation.

The new campus was carefully designed to revitalise and complement the site and surrounds, whilst bringing cohesion and balance to the locality and community services in the immediate vicinity.  

The need to meet a complete array of HBN standards and other HSE requirements over, above and including the current Irish Building Regulations meant it was often difficult to get product and material orders confirmed efficiently. For wall, floor and door colours alone there was a complex palette of needs to be met in appearance, texture, contrast, light reflection differentials, maintenance, warranty, availability, durability, etc. in order to achieve a pleasant homely feel as is required in a nursing home unit.

These challenges applied to all the various build elements and mechanical and electric systems, and were meet effectively through delegation of a key package to a principle site team member, which was followed through to various site workshop meetings with the design team, suppliers and other subcontractors directly and remotely.

Meanwhile, the Terminal 2, Dublin Airport Retail Duty Free project, which has been shortlisted in the Fit Out or Refurbishment Over €5m category, consisted of the complete upgrade of the retail area (known as ‘The Loop’) within Terminal 2 Dublin Airport to bring the experience up to date with the design strategies of international travel based on market research conducted exhaustively by ARI (Aer Rianta International) as part of its global chain.

Key to this project was its phased implementation to ensure that this very busy retail area operated on a 24/7 cycle throughout construction.  

The Dublin Airport Terminal 2 upgrade project was split into two works packages. Work Package 1 consisted of Liquor Unit & Concession Estate: fit out of a new 410 sq m liquor store featuring brands from around the world in a new flagship store for ARI; fit out of a new rear logistic corridor to the concession retail estate with full modifications to the existing shell & core layout to form four new retail units, which were subsequently fitted out by Glenbeigh as Spectrum, Coach, Dixons and Sunglass Hut.     

Work Package 2 (Beauty, Confectionary and Concessions), meanwhile, involved the complete strip out and fit out of the existing retail area to form a completely new 1,500 sq m duty free store, which features perfume, cosmetics and confectionary brands from around the world in a new flagship store for ARI, including modifications to the existing shell & core layout to form two new shell & core units with enhanced shop frontage which Glenbeigh subsequently fitted out as Hugo Boss and DCCOI.

A new passenger/staff by-pass corridor was also built in advance of the duty-free works commencing. This corridor allowed passengers to bypass the duty-free works after hours. A new construction hoarding layout was set up for the various phases of the main duty-free shop.

A passenger walkway was provided around this construction hoarding via the existing duty free shop, which continued to operate on the north side of this walkway during alterations. The hoarding was used for wayfinding, project and commercial information.  

The works included the strip out of all existing joinery, floor finishes and screeds, mechanical and electrical installations and the supply and installation of new floor finishes, joinery and mechanical and electrical installations. 

As this project had airside status at T2 Dublin Airport and was located within the full passenger zone of T2, careful planning was required. All deliveries to site and removal of waste from site were carried out at night when flights were finished. All noisy works were also carried out at night. While the location was a challenge, Glenbeigh’s airport-experienced team successfully managed this challenge with their client DAA and ARI. 

Works were delivered on a phased basis, to ensure the existing retail continued to trade within T2 at all times. This was critical to the success of the project and no trading hours were lost.

Many of the shop fit elements were manufactured outside Ireland and installed by specialists without airport experience. Glenbeigh co-ordinated this process at site dealing with timely procurement, escorting staff airside and ensuring timely and high-quality finish.  

Delivering on programme was a challenge but through strict programme monitoring the works were delivered in full compliance with the tender brief. The programme was tracked and reported to the client. Key milestones on the project were clearly identified and all these dates were achieved.

Founded in 1985, Glenbeigh Construction operates throughout Ireland and the United Arab Emirates and has a broad portfolio of construction projects across public and private sectors. Glenbeigh are one of the largest privately-owned contractors in Ireland, with the founding directors having stamped their ethos on the company.

Their core business is that of a main contractor and Glenbeigh have become industry leaders due to the unparalleled integrated services they can offer, including project management with in-house design, response care teams and pre-engineered low carbon off site building solutions. Their capital projects experience covers a broad spectrum of project types ranging from government, local authority, commercial and retail through to refurbishments, fit outs / restoration and the conservation of heritage buildings.

Glenbeigh Construction Ltd.,

Damastown Way,

Damastown Business Park,

Dublin 15.

Tel: +353 (1) 822 70 08

Fax: +353 (1) 822 70 09

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.gcon.ie

This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, July/August 2020, Vol 6 No 4