Alan Barnes (right) receives his award at the CMYA Ireland celebration dinner on 20 June 2019.
Alan Barnes, of Collen Construction, has been named Ireland’s Construction Manager of the Year 2019.
Barnes’ award came as the result of his work on a complex conservation and refurbishment project on Scots Church in Lower Abbey Street, Dublin.
He received his medal at the CMYA Ireland celebration dinner at Croke Park Stadium last week (20 June 2019).
The Scots Presbyterian Church project involved the erection of a seven-storey exoskeleton steel frame around the existing church, providing new state-of-the-art office accommodation as part of planned expansion of existing office headquarters at Lower Abbey Street.
The Construction Manager of the Year Awards (CMYA) in Ireland recognise the achievements of those leading complex schemes and Barnes was praised for his ingenuity, dedication and construction management skills, with the job delivered to an extremely tight budget and time frame.
The judges said: “The project involved complex works and innovative construction methodologies, which were imaginatively exploited by the candidate. The analogy of the enormity confronted by the candidate was described by one of client’s senior property management staff as akin to performing ‘open heart surgery on a live patient’.”
This is the nineteenth year of CMYA Ireland, which is held once every two years. The CMYA judges assessed paper applications, as well as conducting site visits and panel interviews. The competition culminated with an awards dinner where the winners of each category are awarded gold and silver medals with one overall winner chosen from the gold medallists.
CIOB director of operations, Amy Gough, said: “We need to take every opportunity we can to celebrate the excellence that exists in our industry. Not just to inspire the next generation or to help us create a movement that improves the whole performance of the industry but to tell society, at large, about the impact and long-term legacy our projects deliver.”
