Center Parcs has announced that it’s awarded the first major contract for its Ballymahon holiday village to Limerick-based Roadbridge Civil Engineering & Building Contractors.

This comes after a competitive tendering process for the project, named ‘Center Parcs Longford Forest Holiday Village’.

The contract is for infrastructural work, as part of the €233m development at Newcastle Wood in County Longford. The work is scheduled to start in May.

The infrastructure contract consists of the earthworks, road, and path networks, utilities, drainage system, the lake and building platforms.

It is expected that the Center Parcs Longford Forest development will create approximately 750 jobs during the construction phase.

Once open, the forest holiday village will have capacity for up to 2,500 guests and employ up to 1,000 people in permanent jobs.

This new development will include up to 500 lodges, designed with families and the environment in mind, more than 100 indoor and outdoor activities, a spa, a range of restaurants and cafés and a ‘subtropical swimming paradise’ with water rides and fun for all ages.

Commenting on the awarding of the infrastructure contract to Roadbridge, Martin Dalby, CEO of Center Parcs, said: “This represents another significant milestone for Center Parcs in Ireland and I am really excited about commencing the construction phase of our project. We said from the very outset that we would be looking to work with an Irish partner to construct our new village in County Longford and I am delighted to be able to announce Roadbridge as our infrastructure contractor. The team at Roadbridge submitted an extremely credible and competitive tender for this contract and I am looking forward to working with them over the coming months”.

Speaking today Conor Gilligan, Managing Director, Roadbridge, said: “Roadbridge are delighted to be awarded this very significant contract with Center Parcs and recognise the importance of this project to all concerned, in particular the people of Longford and surrounding region where we have delivered many successful infrastructure projects over the last fifty years. We look forward to once again integrating with the local workforce and supply chain to deliver a project that we can all be proud of.”

Roadbridge has a longstanding commitment to working with local contractors and any subcontractors who wish to be considered for the project should email Roadbridge, at: centerparcs@roadbridge.ie