Dublin National Aquatic Centre dispute heats up

Dublin Waterworld (DWL), the firm running the National Aquatic Centre in Blanchardstown, expects to issue a notice of
dispute to Rohcon, the firm that built the 48m centre, within a few weeks.

A DWL spokesman told CJ: "Arbitration proceedings against Rohcon regarding the defects are expected shortly. DWL holds
collateral warranties with Rohcon and is preparing its case based on these."

DWL maintains that the centre's pool is leaking and that Rohcon, the Irish sister firm of HBG and Edmund Nuttall, is to blame (CJ 7 September). Rohcon and its independent experts categorically deny this.

DWL engaged both Applied Ground Engineering Consultants (AGEC) and Malachy Walsh & Partners to investigate. AGEC's report raised concerns about cracks in the ground floor plant room slab. Malachy Walsh's reports also raised concerns about the plant room slab and highlighted cracking of the pool tank walls.

DWL suggested that the report by Kavanagh Mansfield, commissioned by government agency Campus & Stadium Ireland Development (CSID), would corroborate these findings.

However, CSID chief executive Donagh Morgan denied this, repeating that it backed Rohcon's claims, but refused to release a copy to CJ.

Rohcon maintains that there are no grounds to DWL's claims. Its own investigation (carried out by URS) concluded any cracks were only hairline cracks that were within standard norms and that there were no leaks.

Rohcon insisted Kavanagh Mansfield's report reached similar conclusions to URS's. DWL has the lease for the
centre from CSID. The latter has several ongoing legal actions against DWL: eviction from the NAC for multiple lease breaches; and a 7m claim for unpaid VAT.

DWL has successfully defended itself against CSID's other claim that it had failed to maintain the building properly.