Number One Ballsbridge, Shelbourne Road, Dublin
Shannon Valley was invited to partake as a sub-contractor in a unique project, which included one of the most unusual excavations ever carried out in the history of Ireland. Our contract works included a subterranean development challenge, which utilised a method of construction referred to as “top down construction” or “doughnut construction”. In the “top down” construction approach, upwards construction work is carried out simultaneously to the basement excavation thus accelerating the project timeline. This approach minimises the earthworks and below-ground construction required, prior to work starting on the superstructure above, by building the ground-floor slab first, before the bulk basement excavations commence. This methodology required Shannon Valley to be more holistic in their approach, thus ensuring that health and safety, environmental considerations and the protection of existing structural elements were all optimised. This technique guaranteed minimal disruption to the surrounding sensitive neighbourhood, as the superstructure buffered noise and dust emissions from basement excavation. It also helped to facilitate the main contractor’s desire of achieving Gold certification for LEED through thoughtful environmental planning and construction activity execution.