11 December 2006
Work on Partick Interchange temporarily halted
completion date now estimated at February 2008.
Complexities involved in the design of Partick Interchange have resulted in work on the project being temporarily halted.
Contractor C Spencer Ltd, who started the work to rebuild Partick Station in October last year, has temporarily stopped work to concentrate on finalising specialist technical matters relating to detailed design and approvals.
The completion date will now be delayed and the contractor's current best estimate is February 2008 although SPT hopes to improve on this timescale.
SPT Chair, Councillor Alistair Watson, said: "We always knew the project to rebuild Partick Station was going to be technically challenging, as it involves demolishing the old station and, at the same time, keeping all the rail, Subway and bus services running normally.
"Due to the complexities of the design and approval process, the contractor has advised us of delays and, as a result, has decided to take advantage of the traditional two week construction industry close down in December to temporarily stop work on site. Spencer will be using this time to concentrate on reaching agreement on specialist technical matters before gearing back up to full capacity on site early next year."
The project has always been regarded as technically ambitious, involving as it does, construction over the existing 106 year old subway tunnels, while maintaining the operation of the busy Subway and the suburban rail station located at high level.
In terms of the railway, there are effectively three key stages of approval before the work elements can be constructed:
- approval in principal
- detailed design approval
- approval of the construction methodology.
With over 160 different work elements requiring these three stages of approval, there are effectively over 480 approval stages that the contractor, CSL, must achieve in the design and build contract. Many of these approvals are provided by Network Rail as the custodian of the heavy railway, with the remainder being sought from SPT's Subway team. It is CSL's responsibility to achieve the necessary approvals.
There are on-going negotiations about these problems between SPT Network Rail and the contractor. These problems mean that the estimated costs of the project have risen to some £10.5 million from an original estimate of £9.7m.
Councillor Watson added: "While this is obviously an unwelcome setback, I am confident that the rebuilding of Partick Interchange will deliver a new flagship station for the west end of Glasgow and be an important asset for the urban regeneration of that area."
SPT is contacting all affected residents, businesses and other partner organisations to keep them informed of developments. The site will continue to be manned and secured during the temporary closure period.
Subway, train and bus services are unaffected and will continue to run as scheduled.
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