Construction BUSINESS

Construction and engineering group BAM is in pole position to win a State contract to build a number of courthouses in the State and refurbish others.
The National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) last year advertised for tenders to build three new courthouses and refurbish four others, a contract that is likely to be worth about €100 million in total.
BAM, the Irish subsidiary of multinational Royal Dutch BAM, is understood to have been selected as the preferred bidder for the contract, details of which will be made public in a number of weeks.
Under normal circumstances, preferred bidder status normally means the company is most likely to be awarded the contract.
Joined forces
Three divisions of the group joined forces under the flag of BAM PPP PGGM to bid for the work and the consortium submitted its final tender in March.
The group was competing with three others: a consortium made up of PJ Hegarty and G4S; another from multinational Carillion; and a fourth from John Sisk & Son and Sodexo Ireland, which was backed by Australian bank, Macquarie.
The contract will be to build new courthouses in Letterkenny, Drogheda and Limerick city, where a new criminal courthouse is planned for a site next to the existing one.
The work involves refurbishing four others, Anglesea Street in Cork, Mullingar, Waterford city and Wexford town.
According to the NDFA, the Courts Service, which is the sponsoring agency, has secured planning for the work.
The Department of Justice and Equality sanctioned the projects while the Office of Public Works is the lead technical adviser.
State contracts
BAM would not comment when contacted over the weekend. The group has successfully bid for a number of State contracts over the past two years. Late in 2014, a consortium involving its Irish arm and Spanish infrastructure specialists, Dragados and Iridium, was named preferred bidder for the €220 million New Ross by-pass.
Around the same time, Cork City Council announced that the group and Heineken Ireland had been jointly successful in bidding for a €50 million deal to build an event centre at the old Beamish & Crawford brewery in the city. In 2013, it won the €250 million N11-Newlands Cross project, one of the biggest road developments announced since the start of the decade. The road links Cork, Dublin and Belfast. At the end of 2014, the company had completed the free-flow junction at Newlands Cross.
The Department of Education and Science has also awarded it a number of school building contracts.
Last year BAM Group Ireland reported that it earned €7.5 million pre-tax profit in 2013, more than 25 per cent more than the €5.9 million it reported for 2012. Accounts for 2014 are due in a few months.