Forty-five construction cranes were visible over the centre of Dublin from the seventh floor of The Irish Times building on Tara Street yesterday.

This is an increase of five – or 12.5 per cent – on the previous month’s total of 40.

Nine cranes were located north of the river Liffey – a sharp increase (80 per cent) on the five recorded on May 1st. The remaining 36 cranes were concentrated in the south docklands and along the Grand Canal – up one on the previous month.

The first phase of Project Wave, adjacent to the new Central Bank headquarters at North Wall Quay, has just gone on site and involves the construction of two interlinked office blocks of seven and nine storeys. Further phases of this €200 million scheme will bring the amount of office and commercial space up to 50,000sq m (540,000sq ft) and provide more than 250 apartments.

Site-clearance work has also just begun on a long-vacant site at City Quay and Prince’s Street South close to Seán O’Casey Bridge in the south docklands.

Meanwhile, construction work has also just started on a site at George's Dock and Exchange Place in the IFSC. To be known as the Exchange, this six- storey grade A office building will extend to 10,219sq m (110,000sq ft).

With the economy expected to continue its strong recovery this year and a number of significant developments due to enter the construction phase shortly, it’s likely the number of cranes on Dublin’s skyline will increase.

This is particularly the case in the south and north docklands, where large schemes are set to enter the construction phase.

The Irish Times will be conducting a crane survey once a month to track construction levels in the city.