Bus Éireann defends near €17m spend on temporary bus depot in Cork

Bus Éireann has defended a near €17m spend on a temporary bus depot in Cork, saying unanticipated costs such as water drainage and water storage contributed to a €6.3m increase from initial estimates.

The temporary depot at Tivoli was devised to create space for electric chargers to be installed in the existing bus depot at Capwell, though that is now not set to be complete until 2028 due to project delays.

A Bus Éireann spokesperson told the Public Accounts Committee the site was handed over to them by contractors on May 19, confirming it will be operational next month.

“Our target completion date was March this year, but the project was affected by some weather delays in January and February,” they said.

The estimate of final project cost is €16.8m inclusive of Vat, within the budget of €17.1m.

The spokesperson said they “are confident that the project will be successfully delivered under budget when the depot becomes fully operational this August”.

Notice of grant of planning permission was issued by Cork City Council in early November 2023, with a number of planning conditions attached, including the site had to be returned to its undeveloped state by the last day of 2030.

Bus Éireann board approval was received in November 2023 with a preliminary estimated cost of €10.7m, which the spokesperson said was “understood to be preliminary and based on initial design assumptions only”.

Cost estimate increases

As the project progressed through the detailed design phases after planning approval, cost estimate increases brought the project to a final estimated budget of €17.1m.

Reasons included that the planning permission conditions required the depot to have full containment of all surface water, necessitating a full site drainage system and the construction of underground 100,000 litre tanks.

In addition to increased materials and labour, the construction of this drainage system required additional soil to be “removed from site and disposed of in a licenced facility”.

Fire certificate requirements also required the storage of 20,000 litres of fresh water onsite, a volume the spokesperson said “was not envisaged”, while an ESB substation was another requirement not in initial plans.

The site leased from Port of Cork also increased during the design phase from a 5.5 to 6.8 acres to facilitate these additional requirements, which had “a cost-increasing effect”.

The information was provided in response to a request from Cork Fianna Fáil TD Seamus McGrath, who told The Echo he sought it as the facility has “gone significantly beyond originally forecasted costs”.

“Bus Éireann provided detailed information, but I would still have significant concerns about the overall project management in terms of the original estimate to final budget.”

The information to TDs also said the lease agreement with Port of Cork provides for an extension of planning permission beyond the end of 2030, should such permission be granted.

It is unclear if this extension will be applied for, as the National Transport Authority (NTA) recently said it plans to seek planning permission for two permanent new bus depots at Kinsale Rd and Little Island this year and next.