Tram firm under fire over Cologne building collapse

Published on Wednesday 4 March 2009 21:18

THE German company at the centre of Edinburgh's tram dispute has been urged to suspend work on a new underground railway in Cologne following a major building collapse.

At least two people are feared dead after the collapse of the city's historical archive on Tuesday, which led the mayor, Fritz Schramma, to call into question further metro line construction by Bilfinger Berger.

The company's British arm heads the consortium building Edinburgh's 512 million tram line, and has demanded up to an extra 80 million and more time to finish the contract.

Mr Schramma said of work continuing on the Cologne metro: "I now consider that almost irresponsible. It's not the only building that has cracks or damage."

Since Bilfinger Berger won the metro contract in 2003, it has been blamed for numerous subsidence and structural cracks in buildings, although tunnelling in the area of the collapse ended several weeks ago.

The cost of the 2.5-mile tunnel system has rocketed from 320 million (286 million) to 950 million, and the work has been blamed for weakening hundreds of buildings.

Meanwhile, a fourth day of high-level peace talks in Edinburgh between Bilfinger Berger and TIE, the city council's tram developer, was due to get underway today, nearly two weeks after the dispute erupted.