Cork: Making a sustainable difference
Award-winning consultancy Fehily Timoney is playing a key role in major infrastructure projects in the area, including the Dunkettle Interchange upgrade
Fehily Timoney & Company, the award-winning consultancy, is busy this year working on a range of projects in Cork’s infrastructure, urban development, waste and renewable energy sectors.
With services spanning civil and environmental engineering, scientific and planning, the multi-disciplinary consultancy is a sizeable employer with 80 staff at three offices in Cork, Dublin and Carlow.
Jim Hughes is the director responsible for the energy and planning department at Fehily Timoney.
“Cork has some significant infrastructure projects currently being developed. Among them is the Dunkettle Interchange Upgrade Scheme for which Fehily Timoney is contract designer,” Hughes said.
“The scheme seeks to improve operational deficiencies and improve the free flow of traffic at this crucial interchange. This is an important project for Cork and the region that will seek to enhance connectivity throughout the region.
“A key element to the design is the location in a sensitive estuarine environment as well as complex geology. When the interchange is completed, it will help unlock the development potential of Cork.”
The interchange is at the intersection of the M8/N8 road from Dublin to Cork, with the N25 road from Waterford to Cork and with the N40 south ring road via the Jack Lynch tunnel.
Other significant projects include a residential development of about 300 units in Blackpool for a private developer, with Fehily Timoney managing the planning proposal, providing planning, environmental and engineering consultancy services.
The company also has significant experience in the renewable energy sector, being involved in over 1GigaWatt of wind energy.
Fehily Timoney is currently preparing preliminary design and planning proposals for approximately 250MW of wind energy development in the Cork region.
The offshore wind farm sector is another area in which the company works.
“The offshore wind farm sector is here, and we should see some significant projects in the coming years off the west and south-west coast of Ireland,” Hughes said.
“The future of Cork is looking bright and heading in the right direction, with a number of strategic plans in place to help Cork achieve its critical mass.
“For example, we are seeing the rollout of, and are involved in, projects identified in the Cork Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (CMATS.) This seeks to provide an integrated approach to development, with an objective of encouraging modal shift from the car to more sustainable forms of transport. It will enhance connectivity to our metropolitan towns and suburbs.”
Fehily Timoney has seen a marked increase in projects in the renewable energy and sustainable transportation sectors, Hughes said.
“Climate change has sparked a greater interest in greener and more sustainable forms of energy, housing and transportation.”
