The road to the future

The changing face of Ireland continues to manifest due to the roads structure that is being developed throughout the country and a company heavily involved in the development of the roads network is Ascon Ltd.

The latest project that Ascon Ltd is involved in is Phase II of the M/N9 Waterford to Dublin and at present there is 23.5km of single carriageway being developed along the Waterford to Knocktopher route. Ascon Contracts Manager Declan Roche is currently overseeing the project and he spoke to Irish Trucker about what was involved in the construction of the route.
A sod of County Kilkenny earth was turned on Monday, 12th February 2007 at Mullinavat by Transport Minister, Martin Cullen, T.D., to mark the commencement of Phase 2 of the M/N9 Waterford to Dublin road project.

“The project consists of 24 km of road built to motorway standard and forms part of the southern section of the Waterford to Dublin inter-urban corridor. It will run from Knocktopher in County Kilkenny to the N25 Waterford City Bypass which is currently under construction. Ascon Ltd was awarded the contract for the Knocktopher to Waterford project, which is expected to be completed in 2009,” said Declan.

The project is one of seven national road projects that commenced in 2007 under the Government's investment programme, Transport 21. The N9 Knocktopher to Waterford Scheme is being funded by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan, 2000-2006 and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Under Transport 21, €1.53 billion of funding was provided to the National Roads Authority for the National Roads programme last year, the largest single annual investment in national roads. 215km of new roads have commenced and a further 343km will continue in construction. Six hundred and seventy three projects are being funded under the allocation. Work is expected to be completed by the NRA on nine schemes this year and work will start on seven others. 2006, the first year of Transport 21, was in every way a record year for Ireland's National Roads programme. Fourteen major road projects were completed and opened to traffic and a dozen more started construction - more than three times the number of starts than in the previous year.

“When the entire 110 km route is completed it will link Dublin to Waterford; the N9 will stretch from its junction with the N7 at Kilcullen in County Kildare down to the Waterford City Bypass. At the southern end it will connect into the N25 to Waterford, Rosslare and Cork. At the northern end, the N9 will connect into the N7, which in turn connects to Dublin, Limerick, Portlaoise and Belfast.
“The aim is to have the project finished by Spring 2009 and at present we are on schedule to have it completed by that stage. The design and construction cost of the project is estimated at €108 million,” added Declan.
“Road safety is extremely important and the provision of better quality roads makes for safer road journeys in less built-up traffic. The high quality dual carriageways and motorways that have been built in this country have been proven to be seven times safer than the roads they are replacing.”

The Government has been committed to the creation of a road network that will promote regional and national competitiveness. It is also crucial to Ireland's future economic competitiveness. It is critical that enterprises are able to efficiently move goods both internally and to and from external markets. 98.3% of internal merchandise trade is carried on the road network and this underlines the need for a world-class roads system, especially between the major urban centres.
Due to its expertise in road building Ascon Ltd has been involved in many of the Government developments involving the construction of new motorways going as far as back as the first phase of the development of the M50 in the late 80’s, although the company has been building roads since it was established in 1959.

Ascon Ltd is the largest Civil Engineering Contractor in Ireland, while Rohcon is a sister company. Rohcon Ltd is the wholly owned Main Building Contracting division of the Ascon Contractors Group. Together they rank in second position in Ireland's "Top 10" contracting companies. Ascon Contractors Ltd (ACL) is a member company of the Royal BAM Group of the Netherlands, which is ranked fifth in the European Construction ratings.

“Since being established the Ascon group of companies covers the entire spectrum of construction in Ireland. Rohcon was established in 1993 when Rohan Construction was purchased by the Group. The strong building tradition and expertise of Rohan was transferred to Rohcon and our proven, senior management is drawn from the management team previously employed by Rohan.

“Ascon prides itself on delivering quality projects safely, on time and within budget. Innovative solutions, engineering ingenuity, adherence to the highest safety and quality standards and professional construction management are the hallmarks of Ascon contracts.”
The roads network has improved ten-fold over the past decade and at last Ireland can boast of having a much safer driving environment. Travelling times have been cut dramatically as the amount of people commuting to the capital has swelled. There is still plenty of work to be done and the likes of Ascon are at the forefront of their field of expertise and leading the way in the development of our roads.