Local contractor wins major national award for Offaly housing scheme

A LOCAL company has won a major prize at the Irish Construction Excellence awards.

Contractors Carroll O'Keeffe won the award in the private sector residential developments worth up to €50m on Thursday night at a gala event in Dublin's Convention Centre.

The project entered by Carroll O'Keeffe was Redwood, Clara Road, Tullamore, the housing scheme developed by Seamus Sheerin's Capital Homes.

The judges initially assessed a detailed written application for the shortlist and then conducted an interview with the contractor.

Diarmaid Carroll, construction director, Carroll O'Keeffe, Clonaslee, said Redwood was the first housing scheme in Offaly to use the modern insulated concrete formwork (ICF) system.

Reacting to the announcement that the company had triumphed over the other finalists, Mr Carroll said: “We were delighted. It reflects the quality of work we do and the collaborative approach we take to building and the use of modern methods in our construction. We really felt we actioned all the buzzwords and milestones in modern construction with the Redwood project.”

Insulated foundation systems were used and the homes are heated with heat pumps.

Tullamore's Kenny Lyons were the architects and engineering was by ORS, Mullingar and Galileo Energy Service.

Redwood is a 108-house project and nearly 70 of the houses have been completed.

Carroll O'Keeffe are also currently continuing the construction of the major Silverbrook residential estate on the Arden Road in Tullamore.

Some 110 houses have already been built there, 50 are under construction and work on a further 50 will start this year.

And in July they are scheduled to begin work on another major residential project, the building of 61 houses and 16 apartments on the other side of the Arden Road on a greenfield site close to the Pet Hospital.

Along with Diarmaid Carroll, Carroll O'Keeffe were represented at the awards ceremony (see picture below) by managing director John Carroll, commercial director Colm Kelly, contracts manager Brendan O'Reilly. Project manager David Spollen attended, as did Seamus Sheerin, managing director Capital Homes, Betty Sheerin, director and John Barron, construction director, Capital Homes. Trevor Coyle, Altherm, sponsored the category.

Carroll O'Keeffe previously won an ICE award in 2018 for the extenstion to Scoil Mhuire National School in Tullamore.

Another firm headed up by an Offaly man, Roger Smyth from Kilclonfert, was also a winner in the ICE finals last Thursday.

Teknabuild won (see picture below) in the residential single swelling category for a retrofit and energy upgrade project on a house in Tullamore.

The engineer was CConsult, Cormac Allen, Clonminch, Tullamore and the architect was David Mc Gourty, MMA Architects, Athlone.

The Teknabuild entry got the better of finalists who completed single-house projects in Clontarf and Cork.