Bridge is open

So the costs are now rising to £13m!!! ******* hell!
Some questions need answering on this.

1.) The contractor was originally going to be NMCN but doubts arose about that company’s financial viability. The council then spent months last year to build safeguards into the contract. This would have made sure the council’s money was protected in the event NMCN collapsing. After months of work, a position was agreed in July 2021 that protected the council and allowed work to begin. This was finally signed by the contractor on 30th September, but the firm fell into administration just four days later.
Knowing this huge risk over NCNM's position, why did the council fanny about for ages building clauses into the contract when they could have binned NMCN off sooner and worked with an alternative supplier?
2.) The forecast cost in July-22 was £9.7m, however, with the rise to £12m and now an additional £1m going to be paid, the outurn cost is likely to be circa £13m. A full breakdown of these costs should be disclosed.
3.) When Keltbray were brought on board, the client (council) requested design and specification changes. Why did they do this at such a late stage knowing that this would result in re design costs and programme delays? Who agreed to it? All of this has likely cost a lot of money.
4.) Who signed the works off as finished? Has a snagging inspection been completed? The surface finish to the main bridge and nosing details to the the steps look very poor. I would hope that Keltbray would be back on site to sort this out unless the council have just bent over and accepted it.
5.) Any news on the lift fiasco?!

 

I suspect the surfacing was sub-contracted out, so between the Council, Keltbray and the sub-contractor, I can't see anything being resolved soon (unless the BMBC pay again).

 

The surface has worn heavily, and looked uneven when it was new.

It should be covered under the defects period and rectified - so long as the contractor wasn’t forced to apply it in conditions against the manufacturer’s specification. Which if the case will be noted and a caveat in place.

Overall, I think the bridge does look great when viewed externally - but I couldn’t help but feel the surfacing and finishing to the steps seemed a little low-grade.

If anyone has been to the Etihad, and walked over the bridge from the Academy centre to the main stadium, you’ll know how solid that bridge feels. Not as flash, but solid and finished well for heavy foot traffic.