Unfinished hotel in Offaly will be demolished

THE partially built hotel in Edenderry will be demolished to make way for the new school in the town.

Also, some 50,000 cubic metres of peat soil will have to be removed in advance of the Oaklands Community College build.

According to documents filed with Offaly County Council, replacement of the peat soil will have to take place on a large portion of the new school site. Stone fill will be used.

Boreholes and trial pits discovered peat at depths of up to 3.2 metres and because it is “highly compressible”, minimisation of settlement can only be achieved “via significant remediation intervention”.

Engineers considered a number of options and have recommended a “mass exchange method” where the site is stripped of the peat and replaced with stone which will be compacted in layers.

This method was previously used for the abandoned hotel site on the land.

Construction of the 90-bedroom Plaza Hotel began in 2007 but ended when the development company, headed up by former Fianna Fail councillor Ger Killally, experienced financial difficulties.

For a number of years there were growing concerns locally about the 2,762 sq metre building's dereliction and the County Council acquired it in 2015 and transferred it to the Laois and Offaly Education & Training Board (LOETB).

LOETB were seeking a site for a replacement school for Oaklands at Sr Senan Avenue which has outgrown its capacity.

The post primary school now has nearly 850 students and the new one will accommodate 1,000.

It will have 61 classrooms, 122 car parking spaces, a set down area capable of holding 17 cars, 200 bike parking spaces and six bus bays.

A two-storey structure built around a central courtyard, it will be 10,989 sq metres in size and will have a GAA pitch to its north.

The site for the school is located close to the Dunnes Stores shopping centre off Fr McWey Street.

Construction of the school is expected to take about 18 months. A planning application lodged on December 7 was deemed invalid and will be resubmitted.