Athy College €24m extension approved

WITH the present academy bursting at the seams that are only 14 years old, the educators in Athy College were delighted to hear that the Department of Education (DoE) has approved the design for a new €24m campus, which is expected to open for September 2027.

The project will more than double the size of the existing college building, and will raise capacity overall to 1,000 students.

“It’s not my first rodeo,” said principal Richard Daly, who was involved in the design, opening and running of the present school in 2010.

“It’s a big, long process of permission, design, plans done, then it’s a game of table tennis between the design team and the DoE … another toilet there, make that corridor wider, that sort of thing,” he explained.

“Well, that stage has been completed, and the next is ‘tender and appoint’, and we’re hoping for the green light for that in the new year,” he revealed. “Once a contractor is appointed, it is expected the build will take 120 weeks, in three stages, with the special needs unit and the science labs (4) going in first,” he revealed.

Following this, in phases two and three, there will be a new larger sports hall, engineering room, fitness suite, and over 20 new additional classrooms.

“But we have to knock to re-build, and so, though we have 10 modular classrooms (prefabs), we could have another five before this project is finished,” he said.

“In the final stage, (the modular classrooms) have to go for the new sports hall, squeaky clean,” he said.

They won’t be missed, because they’re a killer on the heating bill.

“The door is left open, and all that heat is outside,” he pointed out.

The new building will be equipped with modern technology for heating with mechanical ventilation heat recovery, water harvesting, electric car charging, PV panels, fibre optic wi-fi and many more features.