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Update: 10.50am
DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL spent €400,000 on the Grafton Street makeover before construction work began earlier this month.
Figures seen by TheJournal.ie also reveal the local authority plans to spend €350,000 installing “street furniture” on the capital’s famous pedestrian street.
The overall project is set to cost the taxpayer €4million and the repaving, which will take place in five stages, is due to be completed by November 2014.
The cost will also include €350,000 budgeted for public lighting which will be installed on the street in the coming years.
Reluctance
The figures released to independent city councillor Mannix Flynn at a recent council meeting give scant detail on how the local authority spent €400,000 so far on the project.
In a response to Flynn, the City Council said the spending related to “investigative surveys” carried out prior to the commencement of construction work, along with design and administrative costs associated with the project.
Flynn said he believed there was a reluctance among officials to give a clear picture of how the money was being spent.
“They present these desires to these jobs but they never give us the details of how the project will be budgeted,” he told TheJournal.ie.
“It usually gets swept away by the fact people want it to happen.”
I think you need far more public scrutiny on things like this and far more transparency from the outset of these situations.
“No one is saying these things shouldn’t go ahead and we should all sit in dilapidated streets but we should be prudent because the boom years of money sloshing all over the place are finished.”
Flynn was critical of City Council officials last month when costs for the Grafton Street makeover seemed to increase by €1.5million at the last minute.
Spot the difference
Grafton Street before
Grafton Street after
Pictures via Dublin City Council
Grafton Street will be repaved in a natural stone granite and the central carriageway will be in an Iberian granite silver grey with a bluish hue, according to the City Council.
There will also be a square panel of Iberian granite light pink with a darker border at the intersections with the side streets.
The Grafton Street Improvement project is the first makeover of the busy shopping street since the late eighties.
KN Networks – an Irish company with offices in Dublin, Belfast and London – won the lucrative €2.9million contract to repave the street.
Today, a Dublin City Council spokesman said: “This €4million project will see the street’s existing red brick surface replaced with high quality natural stone, new public lighting and street furniture.
No further information on costs for specific aspects of the project are available.”
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The chewing gum should show up nicely on the granite
It badly needs it. The street is getting unsafe to walk on, particularly when it rains. Broken slates.
However I feel the pink/red ( whatever colour they are) ground is iconic and an integral part of Grafton St. Will be missed.
The white surfaces are lethal if you wear leather soled shoes when it is raining.
A good power washing of the existing paving would do wonders!
What will happen to the surface being remove? If its cobble block it originally cost €30 to €40/m2. Just sayin’…….
Good point actually, that could be repurposed and sold off to reduce the overall cost
I would say it will be within a year of it been finished and they will be digging it up again to fix a pipe.
How about they use the money to help Irish businesses set up on Grafton Street instead of losing the units to British high street stores
Consumers wish to shop in British high street stores
It will be coffee shops only soon.
I’d love to know how they spent 400k before they even started. The street is already designed and built, so how can you justify that amount on design?
Because it’s more than jumping in with shovels at the ready. There’s surveying to be done, designs to be completed, a tendering process which must comply with certain laws, internal reports within the council etc. 400k would be easily gobbled up by 3-4 staff working on this project for a year and some external services being provided.
This would save a few bob!!
http://www.core.form-ula.com/2010/11/15/tiger-stone-paving-machine/
David – I can easily see how this amount could be sent. You need to provide design and specifications for the street layout, street furniture and ancillary services. I presume that it had to be surveyed above and below ground. There’s been a lot of holes dug on Grafton st. in the last few weeks so I assume that is a part of the process.
One hopes they are doing what they do when building tram lines – move all the services that are below ground so they are accessible in a sensible way.
I don’t actually have a problem with the money being spent if it’s needed. And yes, I’m aware that there are legal procedures that have to be followed.
It’s just it almost seems like this expense is being swept under the carpet (or the paving stones!) to be hidden away, and never fully explained or accounted for.
It’ll be worth it if it’s a good job at end of the day.
Iberian granite? Wicklow is full of granite.
Is there a working granite quarry in Wicklow or anywhere else? And do we know if they tendered?
There is a working quarry in Ballyknockan and do we know if there was an opportunity to tender?
I asked DCC if Irish granite would be used given that this is a main street of our capital city and should be showcasing Irish materials. The response was that 50% would be Irish and the rest imported including “Iberian” granite. I assume but can’t be certain that this comes from the Iberian peninsula i.e Spain or Portugal.
In 1999, a disgraceful decision was taken to allow the of use Chinese granite on Henry St. instead of local stone. Especially when there was no oversight as to how this granite was mined.
It does need upgrading but why not sell off the bricks. A few quid a block for a piece of history
Or you could just pick up a loose one
Iberian granite? Why Spanish? What’s wrong with Irish Granite? We would all like a new suit, dress, car etc, but we are in recession or did Dublin City Council forget this little fact before the RAPE the PUBLIC PURSE yet again for their ridiculous ideas which they allege we need. No one asked me and I’m a Dub born 5 mins walk from the street .
They say we want change? Who did they ask, I’m positive it was not a TAXPAYER.
The works are neccesary as the exisitng cobblelock had a 20 year lifespan before deemed unsafe, it is now there 30 years and cracks, sinking and loose cobbles and very evident.
As a matter of public safety these works must be completed, therefore your opinion on it was not required.
Alan, could not the original cobble have been lifted, resounded, and relaid? Usually the subsidence is caused by trucks etc rolling over it.
Did anyone see the street lamps they are putting in. Why do you care about the paving and not notice they are getting rid of the beautiful characteristic lamps. This is a terrible idea really, the point of Grafton streets popularity is it’s old time charm. Tourists don’t come to other cities to see the same modern look of their own. They want the vintage look mixed with the functionality of modern appliances. If it can’t be the original that is the second best thing. I for one am totally horrified that they would do this and take one of the things that makes Grafton street special out. I hate that about Ireland the government designers can’t see the importance of these beautiful features and heritage behind them. It’s like the those days in the 70′s again where they knocked down beautiful architecture to make way for cold cement boxes.
The lamps aren’t that old. They may look nice but they only appeared when the street was paved in the late 80′s/early 90s.
Like I said it’s about keeping the characteristic look even if it is an actual modern appliance. I know it seems like a small thing but it makes all the difference. They used to hang flowers off them, can they even do that with the cold looking metal ones.
IBERIAN GRANITE! could they not have chosen irish granite or some other irish stone?? Someone must be getting a few junkets to see the stone being cut in the quarry
Grafton Street is a lovely place.
But looking at the above pics I would be quiet happy to leave it as it was to maybe build a small place for the destitute.
Shocking waste of money.
€400k for planning and administration. I am delighted that the Local Property Tax will be out to such good use.
We must remind ourselves that junkets, freebies, special administration fees and such like are essential expenditure. Heat lath, education, services to the disadvantaged and social supports are entirely optional.
This €400k is Houston a symptom of a broader malaise.
Ireland was betrayed by its system of public administration. Malfeasance and self interest of administrators and regulators have destroyed Ireland.
The C& AG and the PAC merely scratch the surface and catch what is not hidden.
I feel nothing but contempt for the widespread self interest of those in public office.
OK
Nice earner for the boys at the club.
Public contracts all ways cost more than private ones . Wonder why . Has it got some thing whit the fact that its not there money thy are spending . . Easy come easy ho . .
How do you know that?
I’m not aware of the cost of any similar “private” contract so perhaps you can assist us by giving us some details.
I work for a M&E consultancy and I can tell you that it doesn’t make a difference if it’s private or public.
Patrick – if you want to know why public contracts cost so much ask the private sector.
€4,000,000. I thought there was a recession? But yet in these times of hospital closures, cuts in carers and disabled grants, we, the taxpayer have €4,000,000 to spend on a few cobbles on a street most Dubliners can’t afford to shop on!!
Lets get rid of the buskers too, it’s a pain in the rocks fighting past crowds flocking around someone dressed as a leprechaun
The wrecked cobblestones in temple bar are in a lot worse condition that grafton street. Big gaps in them and fill of glass.
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