Metrolink Oral Hearing
The first hearing of Dublin’s Metrolink took place in the Gresham Hotel. Over the next five weeks details of the rail service between Swords and Dublin City Centre are expected to be outlined. Construction of the Metrolink is expected to commence in 2025 and take up to a decade to complete costing at least €9.5 billion. The 19km route will carry 2,000 passengers an hour across its 16 stations including Swords, Ballymun, Glasnevin and Ranelagh.
Casement Park
Contractors have begun assessing the planned ground works at Casement Park Stadium in Belfast ahead of the redevelopment of the derelict GAA ground. Maintenance and pre-enabling works are expected to last until April when demolition will begin. The GAA has undertaken the initial phase of the redevelopment which is now believed to cost well above £100 million. When complete Casement Park is expected to host games at UEFA Euro 2028.
National Broadband Plan
Construction has begun on a project which aims to bring high-speed fibre broadband to almost 10,000 homes in Cork. National Broadband Ireland has announced that works have begun in Clonakilty and Fermoy as a part of the Government’s National Broadband Plan. Survey Works have also begun on Bere Island with similar work expected to start on Sherken and Cape Clear Islands.
AI Bricklaying Robots
Monumental has raised £20 million to upscale its technology that uses artificial intelligence to power bricklaying robots. The Dutch firm will use the funds to grow its team of hardware and software engineers, scale the number of robots it can deploy and increase the types of blocks and construction tasks the robots can manage. According to Monumental it’s the first time AI, autonomous tech and low-cost hardware have been combined in this way to create robots capable of working on site.
