Irish firm in Leicester Square revamp

Irish construction firm SIAC has a full menu of projects in the pipeline, having just completed the re-development of London’s iconic Leicester Square.

The successful completion of the Leicester Square project coincides with the recent award of a design and construct highway project, with British joint venture partner Galliford Try, on the A380 at Kingkerswell in Devon. The company, which reported pre-tax profits of €5m in 2011, also has projects such as a motorway in Poland, walkways and bridges in Belfast, and a submission under consideration for the Red Cow interchange in Dublin.

Executives at SIAC, which has offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Galway, say they are “delighted” with the response to their Leicester Square work.

Known as the home of cinema, due to the many premieres which take place in the square, the work involved removing and reconstructing 12,500 square metres of city streets. With 350,000 people moving through the site on a daily basis, SIAC was keenly aware of managing health and safety.

Director John Geoghegan said: “This was a complex, difficult project with unique challenges requiring a dedicated management team, many of whom moved over from Ireland. We worked in close co-operation with Westminster City Council, the Leicester Square stakeholders and traders to deliver this project successfully. We at SIAC take pride in taking on and delivering logistically challenging projects such as this. We can now add the iconic Leicester Square in London to our significant portfolio of successful public realm projects in cities as diverse as Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Armagh and Dundalk.”

SIAC Construction, which celebrates its centenary year in 2013, is currently expanding its successful civil engineering business into Britain.