CASE STUDY
Radharc An tSaile, Kinsale, County Cork .
M M D C o ns tr u c tio n d e liv e r s 4 0 NZ E B h o m e s in Kinsale for C lúid Housing Despite Covid-19 lockdowns, MMD Construction delivered the Radharc An tSaile housing scheme in Kinsale for Clúid Housing just one week behind schedule.
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MD Construction was the main contractor and Project Supervisor Construction Stage for Radharc An tSaile, a 40 unit Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) standard social housing scheme in Kinsale, County Cork, for approved housing body Clúid Housing. The project was a collaboration between Clúid, Cork County Council, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Housing Finance Agency (HFA) and MMD Construction. It had been 10 years in the pipeline and was eventually completed in 2020. Radharc An tSaile comprises 18 twostorey, two-bed houses; 20 two-storey, threebed houses; and two single-storey two-bed accessible dwellings. The ultra-efficient A-rated dwellings incorporate the latest mechanical and electrical services. The houses were built to an A2 BER rating and achieved an airtightness of under 3 m3/hr/m2. Adding an air-to-water heating system brought them to NZEB standard.
CHALLENGES
Kevin O’Leary, Director, MMD Construction, says several substantial challenges were faced on the build, including the Covid-19 shutdown. But the contractor still managed to achieve substantial
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completion only one week behind programme. The first challenge the MMD Construction team faced was in relation to the excavation works. “The scheme is constructed into the side of a hill,” explains Kevin O’Leary. “There was a lot of rock to be cleared, which proved challenging and more time consuming than expected due to its density, particularly when it came to foundations and services. But we were able to bring in the large enough machinery from our plant stock to be able to get on with the job.”
ADDRESSING COVID-19
Cormac Smith, Director, MMD Construction, outlines how Covid-19 impacted the project, “The Covid-19 shutdown and introduction of new Covid-19 operating procedures required major changes for those working on the site and the whole MMD Construction organisation,” Cormac Smith explains. “The first shutdown hampered us, and when we reopened, it took a couple of weeks to get the site moving smoothly. During the first shutdown, we put a lot of work into preparing new procedures for how the overall company would operate, including enabling those who could work remotely to do so, and setting up our IT