Work on the new Thornton Hall prison in Dublin will begin early next year, the Irish Prison Service has confirmed. The new prison will be built on a phased basis. Phase one involves the provision of essential preliminary work required to facilitate the development such as the construction of a new dedicated access route, services and perimeter wall. The Irish Prison Service confirmed exclusively to www.irishconstruction.com that the preliminary works in phase one of the project will be procured on the basis of separate contracts to the main prison development. Work is expected to start on this phase early next year. Meanwhile, it is expected that an EU wide tender competition for the main prison buildings will be launched next year. It is expected that the procurement process for the main prison buildings will be completed while the construction of phase one is underway. This will mean that construction of the main prison buildings can commence “immediately after contract award”, the spokesman said. The construction of the prison will take no more than three years. The Government recently reconfirmed its commitment to developing a new prison campus at Thornton Hall. When completed, the new prison will have a capacity of 1,400 in single occupancy cells but with operational flexibility to accommodate up to 2,080 prisoners, thus future proofing the development. |
