New fire station in Laois progresses to next stage of construction

Laois County Council has opened a competition for tender for the construction of the new fire station in Stradbally, years after it was first proposed.

The public were consulted on the plans for the two bay fire station four years ago in 2021. It has been 23 years since the council first identified the site for it.

The National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NEFEM) finally gave the council the green light to invite tenders for the construction of the fire station in March of this year.

The estimated value of the 12-month contract is €3,900,000.

The old fire station on Main Street in Stradbally was built in 1954 and is no longer fit for purpose. As a result, the Stradbally fire crew moved into the old civil defence building at the junction of Main Street and the R427 Abbeyleix Road last January. This is also the site for the new station.

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Stradbally fire station is one of the busiest in the county, responding to in excess of 100 emergency calls every year.

The plans for the new station include the demolition of the existing Civil Defence building and construction of a new two-bay fire station, fire service drill tower, associated connections to existing services and all ancillary site development works at the site. 

The plans also include a car park and car park access road, widening of the existing vehicular entrance on Cork Road for shared entrance/exit for staff cars and fire vehicles, a fire tender vehicle exit only to the N80, pedestrian access separate to vehicular entrances onto the N80, removal of the previous entrance on the N80, an underground attenuation tank and SuDS.

In the Chief Executive's Report at the November meeting of Laois County Council, Michael Rainey told councillors that there had been approval to move towards tender for the project. Welcoming the news, Cllr Pascal McEvoy said: "I'm looking forward to that. That's been going on a long, long number of years so it's great to see it finally at its final stages."

The time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is midnight on 21 January 2026. The end of the clarification period is midnight on 7 January 2026 and the opening date for tenders is 12.30am on 21 January 2026. 

The contract award date will be 17 June 2026.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme