Trams: Journey set to resume quickly, but final destination still lies years ahead

TRAMS could start test runs within months, but there’s also plenty more construction pain ahead – that’s the outlook for Edinburgh now that the city council is clearer about where it is going with the scheme.

About two-thirds of building work on the Edinburgh airport-St Andrew Square line has yet to be done, including major embankments.

Work is expected to resume in earnest within weeks and take about two years to complete.

The tram depot at Gogar and several bridges are nearly ready, while almost all underground pipes and cables have been moved from the route and the tram fleet has been built.

A test track west from the depot to Gogarburn should be operational by November.

However, tracks have been laid over less than one quarter of the 8.5-mile route, and the damaged Princes Street section will have to be repaired. Further lengthy road closures will be required while the rest of the line is built between Haymarket and the tram turnback in York Place.

This is expected to cause major traffic disruption.

A further question mark hangs over the Shandwick Place section because of the need for more work to divert pipes and cables away from where poles are due to be erected to carry overhead electric lines to power the trams.

This is because designs had not been completed by the time of the original utility diversion work, which took place there three years ago.

A new contractor will have to be appointed for the task, although this is included in the latest project costs estimates.

In addition to tracks and power lines, tram stops, signalling, CCTV and electricity substations have also still to be built.

The only other track to be laid has been on the former segregated busway beside the Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line at Stenhouse, and short sections just west of Haymarket station.

The curved viaduct taking trams over the railway near Edinburgh Park station is nearly complete, with a bridge over the line at Carrick Knowe, near Murrayfield, 80 per cent done.

Three major embankments have still to be constructed on the Murrayfield-Haymarket section of the route, the least finished off-road section, where only about 10 per cent is complete.

A revised agreement between the council and contractors is expected to avert a repeat of the bitter dispute over design changes, which has halted much of the work for two and a half years.

The off-road airport-Haymarket section will be completed for a fixed price, unless bodies, bombs or archaeological remains are found, with the on-road stretch east to York Place non-fixed because of additional uncertainties such as the utilities in Shandwick Place.

Experts believe the construction consortium will now be keen to complete the job as soon as possible.

It is led by German firm Bilfinger Berger, which this year completed a new stretch of the M80 motorway six months early.

The Federation of Small Businesses said traders bracing themselves for more disruption wanted a scheme helping businesses with deliveries during track laying in Princes Street to be repeated elsewhere.