The first sections of tram track was due to be laid in Edinburgh’s Princes Street this week, following the resolution to a four-week dispute over costs between Edinburgh City Council and its contractor.
A spokesman for Transport Initiatives Edinburgh, the city council’s arms-length delivery agency, told Surveyor that while work had been due to start on the street on the 21 February, only 10 working days had been lost.
In an 11th-hour dispute, design-and-build contractor for the £512M tram scheme Bilfinger Berger downed tools in order to seek agreement on ‘additional costs’ it said had arisen due to the client ‘failing to meet contractually-agreed conditions’.
The firm suggested that the problem was due to the overruns in the programme to divert utility pipes and cables.
However, TIE said this work, which Carillion started in July 2007, had been delayed elsewhere, but not in Princes Street.
TIE said the contractor would still be able to complete the work in Princes Street in time for Christmas and Hogmannay, with a break for the Edinburgh Festival in August. Traffic-management measures to redirect traffic away from the street have remained in place while the utility diversion work has continued.
The spokesman also said that extra funding beyond the money provided by the previously-agreed £96M contingency fund was required to cover the agreement.
Cllr Jenny Dawe, leader of the council, was delighted. And a spokesman for the BSC Consortium, which includes Bilfinger Berger, said: ‘We look forward to progressing the works in a spirit of co-operation.’
The 18km first phase of the tram scheme is due for completion in 2011.
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