Education

Sisk FCC is a joint venture setup between John Sisk & Son and Spanish construction company, FCC Construction. The project consists of the two buildings and represents the largest PPP (Public Private Partnership) project in the education sector.

The Central Quad, and its sister building the East Quad, are on track to be ready for the arrival of 10,000 students in Grangegorman in September 2020. It also reinforces the Government commitment to making Ireland’s education and training system the best in Europe by 2026.

The buildings, which span 52,000m² of development, are being delivered via Public Private Partnership. They will provide academic facilities for ten schools from the College of Sciences & Health, the College of Engineering & Built Environment and the College of Arts and & Tourism from TU Dublin.

These six schools provide places for over 4,700 pupils and make up the second bundle of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) school projects delivered under the Department's PPP Programme.

Abbeyfeale Community College was part of this second bundle of PPP schools. As part of the PPP team we were involved in the project from concept stage and worked with the project team to develop the design and provide a fixed price lump sum at close of tender.

The College was created from the amalgamation of three schools to form one main post primary facility that accommodates 850 students. The site for the new school is located just off the main street in Abbeyfeale and the two storey school accommodates 23 classrooms, 29 specialist classrooms, special needs unit, library, staff/administration areas, sports hall, store areas, toilets and ancillary areas.

The development was designed to ensure best possible value in terms of education, organisation, operation, extended use for the community and sustainability.

External facilities include a full size GAA pitch, six hard surface playing areas, vehicular/pedestrian access, car park, cycle parking areas, bus and car park set down areas. The total gross floor area of the school is 9,065m².

These facilities include teaching and research accommodation comprising of:

• Wet, Damp & Dry Laboratories
• Lecture Theatres
• Classrooms
• Offices
• Catering & General Support Areas
• Social, Exhibit & Interaction Facilities

The National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) is a world-class institute that provides training and research solutions for the bioprocessing industry in state of the art facilities.

NIBRT is located in Dublin, Ireland and is based on an innovative collaboration between University College Dublin (UCD), Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University (DCU) and Institute of Technology, Sligo.

A 65,000m² facility built as a medium-scale bio-processing plant comprising seven research laboratories, a bio-processing pilot plant and training / office facilities completed in 2011 at a value of €13.5m.

We were awarded the construction of this unique facility following an open public tendering process which placed an equal emphasis on quality as on cost.

Sisk’s dedicated pharma division clearly demonstrated their knowledge and experience in winning the project. Getting the project built right first-time with seamless handover between all stages and stakeholders is critical for all projects, but particularly for this client, representative of the different colleges. Having built over €1.4 billion in pharmaceutical facilities since 2000, many of which included large laboratory facilities Sisk had the competence to meet the cost and schedule targets while still constructing a facility that met all laboratory quality standards.

NIBRT which is part funded by the IDA Ireland, has a remit to support the development of the existing bioprocessing industry in Ireland and to attract additional bioprocessing companies to Ireland by:

• Training highly skilled personnel for the bioprocessing industry.
• Conducting world-class research in key areas of bioprocessing.
• Providing a critical mass of multipurpose bioprocessing facilities.

This project entailed the construction of the two storey, 6,000m², bioprocess simulated GMP pilot plant, laboratory, training and office facility, including receipt of free issue process equipment and a novated automation contract.

The project was procured on a PPP basis with John Sisk & Son carrying out the Design & Build functions for the PPP Company for the Department of Education and Skills at a value of €52m.

Final completion was achieved eight weeks ahead of the scheduled 104-week construction period.

Located on the banks of the River Lee, the new 5-storey CIT Cork School of Music provides a bespoke academic facility in a unique city centre setting. The 12,000m² state-of-the-art School provides 52 music studios, a 450 seat rehearsal hall, theatre space, music library, live recording suite, dance studios, staff boardrooms and administrative spaces, flat floor classrooms including digital and audio labs and raked lecture theatres.

The main rehearsal hall, although a simple rectangular box, has great acoustic and performance flexibility. Primarily a student training space it also allows for multiple configurations through hydraulic stage, moveable ceiling and pivoting wall panelling. To achieve the rigorous acoustic performance criteria many of the spaces utilise ‘box within box’ construction with floating floors and ceilings, splayed walls and services isolated from the primary structure.

The heart of the building is the public concourse connecting the teaching, performance and administrative spaces. The performance areas and tuition studios can accommodate 56 Steinway pianos.