Limerick students get real life engineering experience on massive development

UNIVERSITY of Limerick students recently got the chance to get real-time experience on one of Ireland's most exciting build projects. 

UL Civil Engineering got to take on the role of engineering consultants at Limerick Twenty Thirty’s Opera Square.

35 students based their Integrated Design Project on the development as part of their third year students. 

Students had to complete the civil and structural design of the ‘One Opera Square’ Building on the Project Opera site, a six-storey office building above basement on Michael Street. 

Some of the tasks that had to be carried out included professional practice elements such as structural analysis, risk & health and safety assessments, land surveying including geotechnical ground profiles, field & laboratory testing of soils and development of a mobility management plan for the Opera project. 

Course leader for the project Declan Phillips said: “The UL civil engineering programme utilises an exclusively ‘learning-by-doing’ approach to prepare the next generation of engineers. 

"This partnership with Limerick Twenty Thirty is an excellent example of that. 

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“Opera Square is one of the most anticipated and exciting projects underway in Ireland and it’s been of huge benefit to be able to get our students base their IDP on it.

"We got great support from the team at Limerick Twenty Thirty, the project managers Cogent Associates and the contractors SISK. The experience the students got will be invaluable to them, not least as they get ready for their co-op placement.

"If a civil engineering student was to pick a project they would like to work on, Opera would be right up there because of its scale, complexity and ambition. It’s been a great experience for them.”

David Conway, CEO of Limerick Twenty Thirty said: “We were delighted to facilitate UL in this project. Opera Square has everything and more that civil engineering students would want to explore.

"These students are going to be the civil engineers of tomorrow and it’s essential that the sector has the graduate flow to sustain activity, so it’s important for us in that regard, too, to be able to support initiatives like this.

“UL’s civil engineering programme has an excellent reputation and given that it’s one of our local universities, this is something we are delighted to have partnered on.”

Following a presentation to lecturers and representatives from Limerick Twenty Thirty awards were presented for the Best Team Design Presentation, Best Site Appraisal, Best Geotechnical Design and Best Structural Design.