The former head of Auckland’s $5.5 billion City Rail Link is now in Ireland, heading the project to build Dublin’s long-awaited, vast new MetroLink underground railway system, which he says will make people “euphoric”.
Dr Sean Sweeney left the CRL last year, ahead of next year’s planned railway opening.
The Irish Independent profiled him this month in a piece headlined “He likes meditating, motorbikes and earns €550,000 ($1,072,947): Will this straight-talking New Zealander be the man who finally gets our Metro built?“.
In the year to June 2024 here, he earned $948,000 as CRL’s CEO.
The Dublin project is an 18.8km route for high-capacity, high-frequency railway with 16 new stations, potentially moving 53 million passengers annually.
Chartered accountant Patrick Brockie is now CRL’s chief executive.
Last June, Sweeney resigned here saying: “I have been more than honoured to lead CRL and, with our finish line approaching rapidly, it was no easy decision to leave a project that will always remain special to me”.
“It will not only do so much for Auckland and Aucklanders, but CRL demonstrates the very best in outstanding teamwork, innovation and design – every one of us who has worked on CRL can rightly feel proud and privileged to have done so."
Now MetroLink’s programme director, he is drawing headlines.
The Irish Independent said Sweeney had been “appointed to lead the delivery of Dublin’s long-awaited MetroLink – and is the Government’s best hope of finally getting this done”.
Sweeney told the publication that people living along the proposed route would have to “grit their teeth” through the disruption, but they would also see their property increase in value.
“People will get upset and say outlandish things about how the Metro will never work. Then it’ll open and two days later Dublin will be euphoric,” he said in Ireland.
While he works hard, he says you’ll only find him in the office after 5pm if there’s a crisis.
He gets a €550,000 salary ($1,072,947).
“They benchmark my salary internationally and I think I’m just below the average. These are really big jobs.”
He says he will take ultimate responsibility on behalf of the people of Ireland for getting MetroLink built but he wouldn’t be afraid to walk away if the minister in charge there didn’t trust him.
Sweeney’s office is at Phoenix Park, and the publication notes he is 66 years old and his father came from Mayo, Ireland.
Sweeney says he is not a fan of Dublin’s public transport which he said was akin to Tokyo at rush hour.
He told other Irish media Dublin had outgrown its current transport infrastructure and the city was Europe’s third most congested.
Last year, Sweeney told the Herald no fatalities and no basalt lava flows impeding construction of the two main tunnels were reasons to be glad.
Just before leaving, the Kiwi engineer looked back on his years with CRL, the successful Link Alliance achieving 90% of its contract work by late July last year.
“I would have preferred to stay in New Zealand. I love New Zealand. I’m a passionate Kiwi. I’m coming back here after the [Dublin] job.”
He was annoyed about this city and country’s lack of dedication to creating infrastructure, particularly in Auckland where he cites the 1959 Auckland Harbour Bridge as an ailing example.
Failure on water and wastewater were other concerns he expressed last year.
“I’m relieved there were no deaths on the job but it’s not finished yet. It was something I would worry about all the time,” he said of CRL.
All up, about 10,000 people worked on CRL, he estimated.
Stringent health and safety protocols safeguarded that workforce. But Sweeney says one worker who had taken a drug caused an accident, resulting in another suffering multiple fractures.
“We had only one serious injury and that was a guy high on meth. He knocked someone off the formwork. He drove out of control towards a piece of formwork and knocked a man off it.”
Volcanic rock was found in the ground at the Maungawhau Mt Eden end of the project and had to be dealt with. Fortunately, such rock was not present in the path of the tunnels further below ground.
He concluded with the Herald last year: “I am an outlier. I left New Zealand because there were no big projects. I came back 20 years later and now there’s nothing when CRL finishes. If there was, I would not be going to Dublin.”
Anne Gibson has been the Herald‘s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.