Ryan Hanley now Stantec Sustainability Natural Environment Award

Founded in 1931, Ryan Hanley now Stantec, is an engineering and environmental consultancy that prides itself creating innovative and sustainable solutions for our clients.   

We are extremely proud to have received the ACEI Engineering Excellence Award 2025 in the Sustainability Natural Environment Category for our Kilkenny Regional Water Supply Scheme (RWSS) Project.

Project details: For this project we were tasked by Uisce Éireann to identify, design, and deliver a sustainable and secure potable water source for Kilkenny City and surrounding areas, supporting population and business growth.

The project involved developing a new intake facility with transfer pipelines from the environmentally sensitive River Nore, and upgrading the existing Troyswood Water Treatment Plant (WTP). Additionally, infrastructure was delivered to enhance resilience within the RWSS.

Maximising sustainability throughout the entire project lifecycle was a core consideration in every decision. In designing the intake, detailed ecological and hydrological surveys, modelling, and assessments were carried out to identify and address associated risks.

Hydrological studies, including those following the UKTAG Water Framework Directive (WFD) approach, confirmed that the projected abstraction rates from the River Nore were sustainable long-term, factoring in potential climate change impacts, and ensuring no significant hydrological impact on the River Barrow and River Nore SAC system.

The design team was acutely aware that the intake could potentially affect water quality, bank integrity, and fish migration within the protected River Nore watercourse. To mitigate these risks, the final design included the following measures:

• Abstraction location: Chosen to utilise an existing natural weir, eliminating the need for any new structures that could obstruct fish passage;
• Bank stability: The location was selected in a non-eroding section of the river, based on historical mapping showing no major erosion or deposition over the past 100 years;
• Flow management: Ensuring adequate flows remained in the river after abstraction, particularly during low-flow conditions;
• Species protection: Design elements specifically aimed at protecting Crayfish, Lamprey and Salmon (all Qualifying Interests of the SAC), in addition to protecting European Eel which is also present in the river and considered highly endangered. Protecting these species, their migration routes and ensuring the sustainability of their habitat was a crucial goal for the project.

In addition to the abstraction, the design included a major upgrade to the Troyswood WTP, increasing output capacity threefold while enhancing treatment processes.

A key component of the upgrade was a new used-washwater treatment system thereby improving the quality of water discharged to the River Nore. 

The works were all carefully phased to minimise disruptions to the live WTP environment, ensuring a continuous water supply to the city throughout construction. All designs adhered to energy efficiency standards and looked to prioritise off-site fabrication to minimise carbon emissions, while maximising circular economy principles.

Throughout the project, we prioritised all three pillars of sustainability, including social impact. By replacing three unsustainable sources with a single, sustainable abstraction, the project had a positive social impact as it not only removed a growth constraint on the city, but also contributed to the protection of the fisheries habitat within the watercourse. 

Donnachadh O’Brien & Associates win Project Management Award

With a proven track record for professional and technical excellence in  the construction sector, Donnachadh O’Brien & Associates Consulting Engineers is a company based in Naas, Co Kildare, which provides structural, civil, infrastructural and project management services to the public and private sectors.  

Since our establishment in 2010, we have grown to be a reputable and recognised consultancy in the built environment with many prestigious projects in the, commercial, residential, educational, sports & recreational, industrial, renewable and public realm sectors.

We are delighted to have received the 2025 Association Consulting Engineers of Ireland (ACEI) Project Management Award for the redevelopment of St Conleth’s GAA grounds in Newbridge and we are particularly proud of our roles as lead consultant and project managers on the project for Kildare GAA.

The grounds were at the centre of a major controversy in 2018 which gained national headlines when Kildare were due to play Mayo in the All-Ireland football qualifiers.

The GAA, however, refused to allow the game to be played in St Conleth’s on safety grounds. Kildare's manager insisted that Mayo could go to Croke Park but Kildare would be turning up in St Conleth's Park, and a stand-off followed which coined the slogan ‘Newbridge or Nowhere’.

After much mediation Croke Park fixed the game for St Conleth's Park, and Kildare won with a famous victory!  Donnachadh O’Brien & Associates  have subsequently assisted Kildare GAA and led the feasibility and detailed design to develop St Conleth’s Park into what has been recognised by Jarleth Burns, president of the GAA as an exemplar and best-in-class county sports ground. 

The project consisted of the demolition of the existing covered stand and clubhouse on a town centre  site and the construction of a new 3,000 seater grandstand as part of a 12,500 capacity stadium. 

Ground-floor accommodation included four new full-size changing room facilities, officials changing facilities, public toilets, refreshment kiosks and plant rooms.

First Floor accommodation included Club Kildare Premium Level lounge with bar, administration offices and multi-purpose function rooms.  

Relaying of the grass pitch

The project also included the relaying of the grass pitch incorporating integrated irrigation and drainage infrastructure and new boundary enclosures and provision of 500 Lux floodlighting in a town centre environment.

A key feature of the development was the construction of a new entrance plaza and  restoration and structural conservation works to the historical Athgarvan Road gate archway entrance, a protected structure.

To ensure a sustainable structural design DOBA specified that ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), be used in the production of concrete in the project.

Precast concrete wall panels and precast concrete slabs were manufactured with a 25% GGBS content. Precast columns, raker beams and terrace units were constructed from concrete with a 36% GGBS content.

Working with the contractor, Elliot Group, the project utilised the demolished material from the old concrete stand in the construction of a temporary access road which saved an estimated 2,000 tonnes of fill material being imported to the site, saving an approximate 25 tonnes of embodied carbon.

Extremely challenging project

As project managers and lead designers DOB&A delivered this project on time and on budget as part of an extremely challenging project including:

• Use of public works contracts set against a demanding client brief;
• Meeting the programme and ensuring handover of the project so that the county finals could be played in October 2024;
• Difficult site constraints & servicing, and sensitive adjoining neighbouring properties;
• Use off-site modular/precast construction for the entire superstructure, with significantly reduced embodied carbon through specification of cement replacements/alternatives;
• First stadium in Ireland to achieve a A-rated BER incorporating renewable and sustainable energy measures;
• Extensive consolidation and refurbishment works to protected and historic boundary wall structures;
• The navigation of both the COVID pandemic and Ukrainian crisis and resulting construction Industry working challenges and cost increase implications over the lifetime of the design and construction works, which had to be value engineered and managed;
• The co-ordination and integration of multiple specialist designers and subcontractors into the overall project.