James Moloney of John Sisk & Son has been shortlisted in the Construction Project Manager category of the prestigious 2020 Irish Construction Excellence Awards. James was nominated for his exceptional achievement in successfully overseeing and delivering the €100m Centre Buildings project at Center Parcs, Longford Forest.
Each year, the Irish Construction Excellence (ICE) Awards – the premier showcase in the Irish built environment calendar – recognise performance excellence across Ireland’s contracting sector. The 2020 edition of ‘Construction’s Big Night Out’ was due to take place in the Convention Centre Dublin on Saturday, March 28th, but has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the organisers have stressed that the gala awards night will proceed at a later date in the year.
Invariably in the running for all the major prizes at the ICE Awards, Sisk as Ireland’s leading builder and contractor had no fewer than five projects nominated in the Project of the Year category. One of these was Centre Parcs, Longford Forest – the landmark €233 million forest resort in Newcastle Wood, near Ballymahon. Set amongst 400 acres of beautiful Irish woodland, this historic resort includes 466 self-catering lodges and 30 apartments.
James Moloney, Regional Manager – Ireland North, John Sisk & Son, managed construction of the Centre Buildings element of the project. He carried 25 years’ experience working as a construction manager both in Ireland and the UK into this project and all this experience was put to telling use as the spectacular, innovative, industry-leading project was successfully delivered on time and within budget
Citing his involvement at Center Parcs as “a hugely positive experience”, James notes that a project of this scale and complexity could not have been delivered successfully without an incredibly engaged group of very professional individuals and companies who came together and cooperated in a truly constructive way throughout a very demanding 18-month construction period.
“I have been involved in many great projects previously but Center Parcs was in many ways truly transformational. It’s a career milestone through which the past and future will be measured,” the Mayo man states. “This project itself is a world-class development; it has allowed many Irish construction companies and professionals to demonstrate excellence.”
James has worked for John Sisk & Son for the past 16 years, having previously spent a decade with G&T Crampton after graduating from Waterford IT with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Construction Management. Although admitting that working on Center Parcs was “a game changer”, he downplays his own nomination for the Project Manager of the Year Award at the Irish Construction Excellence Awards: “It’s very nice to be shortlisted for an individual award but like all projects it was delivered but a large highlighted motivated team working together.”
The portion of the works James was responsible for delivering was the €100m Centre Buildings project, consisting of nine buildings – woodland activity building; cycle centre; Pancake House and water sports building; a 30-unit apartment block; arrivals lodge; the Aqua Sana Spa; east block; west block; and the 4,000 sq m Subtropical Swimming Paradise (STSP) – which if combined would occupy seven acres.
The Centre Buildings project commenced on-site on the January 8th, 2018 and the final handover to Center Parcs took place 76 weeks later on June 14th, 2019 as per the agreed schedule. The project consisted of a series of phased handovers. Despite the very demanding challenges involved, James and his team were able to successfully deliver the project to the agreed timeline.
The workforce constructing the Centre Buildings project peaked at 700 persons, who worked 1.4million man hours without a reportable accident. Meanwhile, the supply chain on this vast design and build project consisted of over 300 subcontractor and supplier packages.
Schedule management was a significant challenge during the construction phase. In order to ensure that the phased handover dates agreed with Center Parcs were achieved, critical path analysis (CPA) software was utilised, with the project scope summarised into activities and logically linked to form a dynamic model of the project.
This was integrated with the 3D model at pre-construction stage to produce a 4D simulation of the project. Actual progress on-site was then tracked to identify variants and action was taken to resolve any issues identified. Drone footage was captured throughout the project and this proved very useful with regards to progress monitoring.
PowerPoint presentations were provided to Center Parcs, their consultants and funders at monthly Progress Meetings, where James provided detailed progress reports using a combination of aerial photography, drone video footage and extracts from Sisk’s 4D model. Delivering progress updates via an audio visual presentation was crucial in demonstrating to Center Parcs that James and his team understood the project completely and that real and substantial progress was being made at a pace that at least matched that identified in the 4D model at tender stage.
To conserve wildlife, flora and fauna, only required areas of site were cleared to accommodate the buildings. All other areas were actively protected throughout the construction process. All streams within the site were actively protected and in conjunction with Inland Fisheries Ireland other watercourses were realigned and washed gravel introduced to further benefit fish and aquatic macro invertebrates.
James arranged for a zero emissions electric vehicle to be placed on-site for the construction phase (replacing a large diesel SUV pick-up) to transport staff around the large site. Furthermore, he ensured that all timber used during construction was FSC Certified and engaged with constant auditing undertaken in tandem with Center Parcs’ environmental team, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) and the project’s Environmental Working Group throughout the construction process. On average, 90% of all construction waste generated on-site was diverted from landfill.
From tender stage in mid-2017, as Project Manager he formed a strong construction management team to win and then deliver the project. He ensured that this team engaged with Center Parcs and their professional team throughout the tender process and made a clear commitment that if John Sisk & Son were successful, that their tender team would then deliver the project. Once the Centre Buildings project was won, Sisk ensured that this commitment was delivered upon, resulting in excellent communication, strong relationships and continuity.
A detailed logistical plan had to be drawn up as there were over 700 people working on and moving around the site at the peak of the project and it was imperative to protect the surrounding environment from traffic and unnecessary footfall. Coupled with this, there were significant deliveries of materials every day to sustain the works on site. Temporary logistics were thus a significant challenge. To address this, permanent carparks were completed at a very early stage and brought into use for the site workforce. A daily shuttle bus was also in use from 7am until 7pm to transport site operatives from the carpark to the centre buildings area.
The main focal point for guests at Center Parcs, Longford Forest is the Subtropical Swimming Paradise (STSP) – a breath-taking building which alone cost almost €40m to build. A masterpiece in both function and form, this timber-frame building of astonishing scale and design, with curves across all axes, is a stunning triumph in its own right and one of the many areas where Sisk brought added value to the project.
The STSP is a water park, heated to 29.5c all year round and filled with lush green tropical plants and trees. It includes a large wave pool, rapid river, whirlpools, water slides and play areas for smaller children.
The initial concept design for the STSP superstructure at tender stage was a structural steel frame sitting atop glulam beams. However, through comprehensive design reviews with Center Parcs, James value engineered the design of the STSP to eliminate 95% of the proposed steel structure and introduced extensive use of CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) in its place. The Glulam & CLT approach is far superior technically and presents a much improved aesthetic.
This approach also reduced the erection time by eight weeks and eliminated the need for 480 tonnes of structural steel. All Glulam and CLT elements required were produced off-site in Austria and delivered to site on a JIT basis. As some of the elements used were up to 50 metres long and 2 metres deep, a special route to the midlands had to be devised by transportation trucks.
Throughout the duration of this magnificent project, James stressed the importance of everybody involved working together as one team, with all artificial boundaries between team members removed. By achieving this, his unified team was able to take ownership of the project and drive it forward to a successful conclusion. Ultimately, the Centre Buildings project at Center Parcs, Longford is the culmination of 18 months of skilled, carefully-planned, excellently-managed and coordinated work where a group of exceptional Irish construction workers came together under inspirational leadership to deliver a challenging project to the required standards, safely, on time, within budget and to the client’s complete satisfaction.
John Sisk & Son
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, September/October, Vol 6 No 5
