Edinburgh and Bilfinger bury hatchet (in a hole in road, presumably)

City council chief executive Sue Bruce said a new “mutually respectful” partnership had been established with the Bilfinger Berger-led contractors consortium, with whom the local authority was previously embroiled in a bitter dispute.

In her first interview on the tram scheme since the deadlock was resolved in the summer, Ms Bruce told The Scotsman she was also confident any future problems could be solved amicably.

However, she admitted more needed to be done to keep residents informed about disruption caused by the tram work on the line under construction between Edinburgh Airport and St Andrew Square in the city centre.

Ms Bruce, who was credited with pursuing mediation talks that ended the two-year wrangle, said the project was now “just construction work”.

She said: “It’s early days and we have only been back six to eight weeks, but everything is happening in the way it is supposed to. So far, we appear to be going to programme. We have not had any hitches and have been very fortunate with the weather, which has allowed us to keep going.”

Ms Bruce said there was now an entirely different relationship between the council and contractors compared to the impasse before the dispute over responsibility for changes to the project was settled.

The feud between the two sides was characterised by former council tram firm chairman David Mackay describing Bilfinger Berger as “delinquent” and a “modern-day Dick Turpin holding a pistol to our heads”.

In turn, Bilfinger Berger accused Tie of “aggressive and hostile tactics”.

Ms Bruce, who has conceded the “delinquent contractor approach” was harmful, said of the new relationship: “It’s like night and day. We are in a completely different place.

“We fully understand each other’s position and what we each have to do – we have a mutually respectful relationship.”

Ms Bruce said the two sides were now working in a much more “collegiate fashion”.

“You definitely make more progress by working more as a team,” she said.

A key factor in this is likely to have been the council’s decision to scrap its tram firm Tie (Transport Initiatives Edinburgh) following the resignation of several senior officials, such as Mr Mackay, who had played leading roles in the dispute.

However, it is also significant that Ms Bruce – who took up her post in January – has forged an entirely different relationship with largely the same people at Bilfinger Berger who were there during the dispute.She said: “They have more of less the same people, who are good to work with – the biggest change has been our side.”

Ms Bruce said she was still devoting about 15 per cent of her time to the project, although this had reduced drastically from earlier in the year.

“In the first seven months, the tram was virtually all I discussed,” she said.

She said new joint working groups, involving council and contractors’ officials, had been formed to run the project and deal with problems. They include the project delivery group, which meets every two weeks and is chaired by Vic Emery, who chaired Tie and Transport Edinburgh, the tram-bus umbrella body.

Ms Bruce herself chairs the joint project forum, which meets monthly to oversee the tram scheme.

She said any problems would be progressively handed up the chain of bodies for resolution, although she admitted the system had yet to be tested in earnest to see if it worked. She said: “We have a very clear route and the ethos is one of finding a solution.”

Ms Bruce was speaking as the council compiles a masterplan on how the project will be completed, expected to be in summer 2014. She said this was due to be published by Christmas.

She said: “There were several programmes and we are bringing them all together so people have an idea of when things will be happening.

“This will give them the opportunity to track progress.

“There is a huge amount of technical detail and we are getting that consolidated.”

Work has already been increasing steadily since councillors finally agreed in September to build the tram line to St Andrew Square – a week after a previous council vote had truncated it at Haymarket.

However, it is yet to be seen whether the masterplan will update the total cost of the project from the current £776 million – which will reach £1 billion when interest charges on borrowings are included.

Ms Bruce admitted that greater effort was required to keep residents in the picture ahead of tram work.

She said: “One of the things we need to work hard on is getting information out.

“There have been a lot of meetings over mitigation measures for traders in the city centre, but what we do need to do is get more information out along the whole route to tell people what is going on.”

This could be in the form of information displays on fences bordering work sites.

Some local residents have complained of not being kept informed about work outside their homes.

Lorraine McCowatt, who faces Saturday night piling work near her house in Baird Drive, west of Murrayfield stadium, from tonight was worried about the impact on her family life.

She said: “My son has exams next month so how is he going to sleep at night?

“They have also cut the trees down behind our homes to make way for the tram line and there’s lovely landscaping proposed, but will there be enough money left to fund it?”

Meanwhile, Chelsea Whyte, who lives beside the route near Haymarket, said she felt forced to close her curtains after suffering the intrusion of workers looking into her home.

Opponents of the tram scheme said the focus must be on bringing the work to a swift conclusion.