We're in a bad place, admit tram chiefs

Published on Monday 16 March 2009 20:58

EDINBURGH'S tram developers have admitted they are "going through dark days" as their dispute with a contractors' consortium hit construction work for the first time.

Mike Connelly, of city council-owned TIE, said: "We are not in a very good place at the moment because of the contract dispute with the consortium."

However, he added that there was a "huge success story to be told" of the positive impact trams would have.

His comments at an Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce lunch yesterday came as TIE said Bilfinger Berger had refused to start tram line work in earnest in Princes Street, which had been scheduled to get under way. The consortium's main firm has continued preliminary work in the street since it was closed to traffic three weeks ago, but had been due to start removing the road surface yesterday.

However, late-running work to move underground pipes and cables, which is part of a separate contract, is continuing in several places on the street, including at the Mound junction.

TIE believes the construction dispute is unlikely to be resolved before it is passed to an independent adjudicator on Thursday.

Bilfinger Berger is understood to have demanded up to an extra 80 million and more time to complete its contract, as part of the scheme to have trams running between Edinburgh airport and Newhaven by 2011.