Our Story

Derry Roughan and Joe O’Donovan met in the early 1970s while working as young engineers in Denis O’Leary & Partners. In 1974, they struck out on their own, forming Roughan & O’Donovan Consulting Engineers (ROD). In the early years, they worked from their respective family homes before opening their first office in Stillorgan, Dublin, in 1978. 

While ROD’s early projects were mostly in the buildings sector, they were encouraged by the successful track record of Derry’s father, JJ Roughan, a consulting engineer who specialised in bridges, to undertake two bridge commissions for Mayo County Council, at Knockadangan, near Ballina, and at Uggool, Bellacorick.

Derry and Joe’s first employee was Des Kernan, who joined them from Denis O’Leary & Partners and spent the remainder of his working life as a chief technician with ROD. The business grew at a modest rate, and its staff numbered 15 at the end of the decade.

In the 1980s, a deep recession in Ireland forced Derry and Joe to look for work opportunities abroad, in Saudi Arabia in particular. It was, however, the formation of a relationship with G. Maunsell & Partners that proved pivotal to the survival of the company. It opened the door to several large commissions in the UK, including the River Lea Bridge for the Docklands Light Railway, and led to a long-lasting and successful joint venture agreement between the two companies.

When the local authorities in Ireland began to contract out both the road design and the structures elements of their schemes in the late 80s, the company won several notable commissions, including seven bridges on the M50 motorway in Dublin, four bridges on the N3 Blanchardstown bypass and Clonee bypass, and another two bridges on the M4 Kilcock-Maynooth-Leixlip motorway. These
projects, together with the recruitment of two highly skilled engineers, Dr Eugene O’Brien and Pat Maher, helped establish ROD as a reputable engineering firm.

In the early 1990s, ROD broke into the roads sector, winning the Citywest junction on the N7, the N33 Ardee Link Road, the Fonthill Road bypass of Clondalkin Village, and the Dundrum Area Traffic Management Plan. These projects paved the way for local roads schemes including the Dundrum Main Street Bypass, and larger schemes outside Dublin including the design of the M1 Drogheda Bypass.

As Ireland’s economy recovered, ROD widened its range of projects within the buildings sector to include civic buildings, courthouses and historic building restorations.

The company’s growing reputation for technical expertise and skill in the design of bridges opened the door to several exciting commissions, including the William Dargan Bridge and the Mary McAleese Boyne Valley Bridge. These prestigious projects pushed ROD into the national limelight, sparking a period of major growth that saw staff numbers increase to over 100 by the end of the decade.

The major inter-urban roads programme brought bigger projects for ROD, including the design of several hundred kilometres of motorway and dual carriageway roads linking Dublin to the regional cities along the N2, M4, M6, M7, M8 and M9 routes.

In the wider transport sector, ROD was engaged by Iarnród Éireann on the management and enhancement of the national railway network and acted as local partner to the international design team on the first LUAS tram lines in Dublin. Meanwhile, ROD’s reputation within the bridges sector was further enhanced by its work as the Irish partner and independent checker for the Santiago Calatrava-designed James Joyce and Samuel Beckett bridges in Dublin.

By the end of the decade, ROD had developed specialist teams in the environmental, water and geotechnical sectors, and its staff numbered 150. There were losses too, however, as Derry retired from the company in 2000, and Joe sadly passed away in 2008.

In response to the 2007-2008 financial crisis, ROD sought to diversify both its client base and its service offering by securing work on large, complex bridge structures overseas and partnering with construction contractors in the UK for design and build contracts, such as the A2 Shore Road to Greenisland Upgrade near Belfast and Northern Spire Bridge in Sunderland.

Creating a new services stream in asset management and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) led to ROD securing the enhancing Motorway Operation Services programme in 2017, the largest ITS project of its kind in Ireland.

The buildings group pivoted into the healthcare sector and, as Ireland’s economy began to recover, later branched into the private housing sector.

By the end of the decade, our staff numbers had risen to 190, and we had opened two new offices: a north Dublin office in Northwood (2018), and a UK office in Otley, Leeds (2019).

As the industry moved towards the adoption of sustainable practices, the focus in Ireland continued to shift from road construction to maintenance and enhancement. Once again, ROD successfully adapted, winning commissions for road maintenance and management services as well as capacity enhancements, the most significant of which is the MCAAS-2 Region West commission.

Our embrace of complex bridge design schemes remains steadfast. Renfrew Bridge, the first opening road bridge over the River Clyde in Glasgow; the River Suir Sustainable Transport Bridge, a pedestrianand cycle opening bridge in Waterford City; and the symbolic Narrow Water Bridge at Carlingford, Co Louth, are among several new projects under construction.

Over the past 50 years, ROD has weathered many economic storms and proven its resilience. We remain an independent company, owned by working directors who lead their teams from the front. The ethos of excellence in engineering, instilled by Derry and Joe, remains at our heart.