Costs on the controversial €490,000 reconstruction of a wall by the OPW spiralled as construction stalled for over a year while waiting to have a live power cable dealt with by the ESB.
Internal records detail how the project was due to take less than three months from start to finish but instead ended up lasting almost three years.
A timeline explained how builders were “instructed to stand down” in October 2022 after a live electrical cable was discovered beneath the boundary wall at Lansdowne House in Dublin.
Then, Sensori – the firm that was leading the project – had to wait three months before they could even get a reference number from the ESB to fix it.
An email to the OPW that December said: “I will try and make contact again with the general number for an update. To date, we have contacted three different people in ESB.”
The timeline logged over a dozen emails or calls between October and January 2023 and repeated promises of a response “within two [to] three days”.
A log of one call that January said: “Contact ESB General Enquiries, as no contact received. On Hold again. Reference number given to ESB.”
Work on the wall did not ultimately recommence until December 2023, more than a year after construction was first stopped.
However, the electrical problems did not end even then, and after paying the ESB €54,000 to remove the problematic live wire.
As rebuilding of the wall resumed, work was again suspended following the discovery that another electrical cable “understood to be isolated was in fact still live.”
When Sensori contacted the ESB to ask what had happened, they were told this was not included in the original job specification.
The timeline said: “We followed up with [them and they] advised they did not allow for the full removal of cable and to have this carried out would require another application and second payment.”
Details of this second fee were blacked out from documents and with the project already long overdue, another company was hired to carry out the works instead.
The timeline said: “Considering the time taken by ESB to revert with the original application and given ESB had demanded a further [redacted amount], the main contractor engaged with a specialist contractor.”
Work on the wall was again able to resume but difficulties continued with a chamber for accessing electrical cables still left open in May 2024 and fenced off to protect the public.
A note from July last year said: “Meeting on site with ESB to review draw pit and backfilling with a view to removing barriers.”