Clare council asked to report on unfinished bypass

CLARE COUNTY Council was yesterday called on to provide a full report in relation to the €200 million Ennis bypass scheme, where work is still ongoing one year after the project was due to be completed.

On Saturday, The Irish Timesrevealed that the firm constructing the route, Gama Construction has incurred a loss of up to €45 million on the project.

All works relating to the route were due to be completed on April 11th last year, however work is continuing on the scheme and Clare county engineer, Tom Carey has said that work is expected to continue for a number of months.

The three-phase route has been fully open to traffic since December last, however Gama has yet to finish completion works and the laying of a water main.

Mr Carey said: "The priority was to have the road opened to traffic and that is going very well." Mr Carey confirmed that Gama applied for an extension of time to have the project completed due to extenuating circumstances.

Mr Carey declined to comment any further on the detail due to contractual obligations, adding that he was satisfied that the level of finish to the bypass has been very good.

Gama disclosed to the Labour Court that it has paid an undisclosed sum due to the council because the project was not completed on time.

Yesterday, Cllr Brian Meaney (Green) demanded a full report be put before councillors for the local authority's April meeting in relation to the route.

"There must be full disclosure from the council and we as members of the local authority should be told what the final cost of the project will be, how much Gama has paid in penalty clauses and why exactly Gama has been so late in completing the route," he said.

"The opening of the route has been rightly welcomed, but it is unacceptable that the contract works are more than a year behind schedule, especially when we don't know the reasons why.

"While Gama claims that it has lost €45 million on the contract, we do not know if that includes claims for additional monies that Gama would have lodged to the council.

"I believe it does not, so while the contract price would have been €123 million, the taxpayer may have to pay more out and we should be now told how much."

The 97-page contract for the Ennis bypass project, seen by The Irish Times, states that if the contractor does not complete the contract on time, the contractor will pay delay damages to the council for not completing the bypass on schedule.