It's all about the ducts

[andrewducker]

I've been wondering why, exactly, Edinburgh's Tram system is taking so ridiculously long to to get finished.  I mean, I'm sure there's incompetence in a variety of places, but I was assuming that something material had occurred to throw work off so badly.

And in a throwaway comment in an article today in The Scotsman it becomes a bit clearer:

Figures set to be presented to the city's tram sub-committee next week show that contractor Carillion moved 40,000 metres of pipes and ducts when it was originally due to be paid £40 million to divert just 27,000m.

According to the council, the amount of utilities work carried out has led to a "significant" improvement in the quality of the city's infrastructure and should help provide faster broadband internet.

While I'm sceptical about the second sentence there, I'm shocked that there was 50% more "stuff" down there than was expected. Was this because the utility companies had no idea what was actually down there? Was there just insufficient due diligence performed when calculating the amount of work to be done? I'd love to know who fucked up on this one - and whether it was actually avoidable.

Comments

[andrewducker]

I know that we need to move it - I just hadn't realised how unknown the underneath of Edinburgh was! And I hope that you're right about them keeping better track now.

[nojay.livejournal.com]

They have GPS these days and if all else fails use digital cameras; just take pictures of what's in the hole now before they fill it in again. That's a lot better than the existing pile of hundred-year old hand-drawn sketches and copperplate descriptions of the work that was carried out by half-illiterate Irish navvies.