Ascon lands €114m project on N6

Construction group Ascon has landed a €114 million contract to design and build the latest phase of the N6 upgrade project.

The Kildare-based company will design and build 29km of dual carriageway between Kilbeggan and Athlone. The contract, which was awarded in recent days, will also entail the construction of 11km of single carriageway side roads and various junctions and farm access routes.

The contract is the latest in a string of successes for the company that claims to be the second largest general contractor in the State.

The company is already involved in constructing Phase I of the route, which runs from Kinnegad to Kilbeggan.

In May this year, it also secured the €208 million contract to construct the Carlow bypass. A few months earlier, the Celtic Roads Group of which Ascon owns a one-third stake, won the €360 million contract to build and run the N25 Waterford bypass and toll.

The latest project will see the construction of a new road bypassing Kilbeggan, Horseleap and Moate on the existing N6 and linking into the existing Athlone bypass. It is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2008.

Westmeath County Council, which ran the tender process, had invited tenders from companies that had expressed interest in the contract. In all, five tender offers were submitted with Ascon being chosen on the basis of being the "most economically advantageous" tenders, according to the e-tenders website.

Ascon has been a major beneficiary of the building boom, with pretax profits rising by 24 per cent last year to €20.24 million.

In business since 1958, its headquarters are at Kill, Co Kildare, and it has offices in Cork and Galway. It employs 1,030 staff.

With turnover in the current year said to be in excess of €400 million, the most recently filed accounts for the holding company, Ascon Contractors Ltd, show that its sales grew to €371.23 million last year from €261.78 million in 2003.