Shannon Pot centre managerto be appointed

Interviews with a view to appointing a project manager for the council’s ambitious €6.4 million Shannon Pot Discovery Centre in the Cavan Burren have been scheduled to take place in the New Year.

The appointment is one of several developments taking place in tandem after the local authority issued tenders seeking an ‘Architect Led Integrated Design Team’ to oversee delivery of the project.

Tenders were issued in December, with a deadline for submissions of January 24, 2022. Director of Services, Brendan Jennings, described the progress as “positive” when speaking to The Anglo-Celt.

The proposed plans include a new visitor discovery centre, interpretive trails from it to the Shannon Pot itself, an elevated viewing platform and a bridge to cross the River Shannon.

Back in June 2021, Fáilte Ireland approved €4.8m in funding for the visitor centre, with a further €1.6m to be provided from Cavan County Council’s own coffers.

The project also includes works within the Cavan Burren Park to enhance existing facilities. Plans for an outdoor amphitheatre are similarly envisaged.

The design team sought are expected to have a range of specialist skills, from engineering to archaeology, ecology as well as audio visual design specialists and landscape architects.

Sports Centre

Separately, tenders were also published seeking to appoint a design team for the planned multi-million euro Cavan Regional Sports Centre in Cavan Town.

“We’re working with our partners, the GAA and the Royal School to close out a few items on the project. Tender for detailed design is the first step. The money is there, and we now need to go through the process of procuring a consultant engineer. That’ll be concluded early in the New Year,” explained Mr Jennings.

The new campus is set to encompass a state-of-the-art indoor facility with synthetic pitch, outdoor floodlit multi-sport 3G pitch, GAA pitches and an athletics track with grass inset. Facilities for soccer and rugby, basketball and hockey, badminton, tennis and athletics are also planned.

The project dovetails with Cavan GAA’s plans to build three additional grass pitches adjacent to Breffni Park. Combined, they form a masterplan for sporting facilities for the county into the future, the council believe.

The long-term vision for the site also includes a new 25m six-lane swimming, plus secondary pool.

The council received a grant of €837,680 in 2020 under the Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Fund to progress the plans. The overall project is expected to cost €28m to deliver, and will be done in phases. The council has again requested designs, a calculation of costs and a number of other measures to be contained in any submissions.

The value of the design contract is said to be in the region of €1.4m.

Submissions close on January 21.