No opening date for new park and recreation amenity park that's costing millions of euro

Kildare County Council still does not have an opening date for the Kerdiffstown Park development on the outskirts of Naas.

KCC indicated in March that the project was in the final stages of development “and it was hoped substantial completion would be reached in the coming weeks and at that stage, full running of the park and landfill management would move from the contractor to KCC for final preparations for the park to open.” 

Most of the remediation works were completed, ahead of project time, toward the end of 2023 with a small number of works outstanding.  Final  commissioning and checks of the landfill infrastructure are being carried out. However KCC says this last phase of the final checks on the landfill infrastructure “is taking time due to the complexity of this type of work.”

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A specialist has been recruited to deal with landfill gas management ”and to assist the contractors own landfill gas specialist.” 

Environmental management and monitoring systems are in place and “will be part of the future management of the site, to ensure the protection of public health and the local environment.”

Work done includes capping the site with an impermeable material, installing 87 new gas wells, connection to a gas flare, and associated infrastructure. KCC says it’s necessary to ensure that gas generated in the field is captured.  The gas is then transported, burned off in a flare and emissions are maintained in accordance with the site licence.  

“We have been working to maximise the efficient extraction of gas and identifying any snagging in the infrastructure since the end of last year.  

This type of work takes time and any changes to the landfill gas collection system requires extensive monitoring to ensure it is operating correctly.”

A new low calorific flare is due to be delivered this month and will help with the process.

“We look forward to confirming an opening date for Kerdiffstown Park in the near future.”

The Kerdiffstown landfill remediation project as it’s known, embraces an ongoing multi million euro clean up of a major dump site - which required European expertise to bring an internal fire under control. And came after the surrounding area was enveloped in a noxious odour for weeks.

The 75 acre site  was once among the most controversial dumps in the country. 

In January 2011 a series of fires began to burn deep within mounds of waste and site emitted noxious odours as well as plumes of white smoke.

Some 3.1 million cubic metres of waste was dumped there - enough to fill Aras Chill Dara 70 times.

It was eventually closed by a court order and it emerged during the court hearing that Neiphin Trading Limited, the company which operated the site was in financial difficulty.

Since then a huge clean-up operation has been underway as a prelude to the development of an outdoor recreation centre.

According to one KCC estimate it was hoped that the development could be open at the end of 2023 or early 2024.

It’s not known how much the project will cost  but a previous estimate placed it at between €30-€40m on top of the costs associated with the clean up operation.