Drainage scheme:A short drainage sewer under the Shannon river ended up costing eight times more than forecast after Limerick City Council became embroiled in a lengthy dispute with a contractor, according to the C&AG's report.
The 2.6km pipe, a short section of the overall Limerick drainage scheme, was expected to cost under €10 million, but will end up costing over €83 million, or almost €32,000 a metre. The contract for the North Interceptor Sewer was awarded to Uniform Construction Ltd (UCL) in June 1999. UCL's tender for €9.57 million was the lowest.
The contract started in June 2000, but by the following March, UCL was complaining of difficulties in the path of its tunnelling. It said the natural ground was much lower than indicated on drawings and warned that additional costs would be incurred.
The city engineer said the problems were due to overmining and inadequate control of the boring machine used to make the tunnel. UCL did not have the expertise to deal with the problem, he claimed.
After consulting with the Department of Environment, the council terminated the contract in September 2001, and expelled the contractor.
However, in January 2003, a conciliator found in favour of UCL, and said the termination of contract was wrongful and should be set aside. He absolved UCL of incompetence and found that ground stabilisation was necessary. At this stage, UCL was prepared to settle for €12.4 million.
However, the council rejected the conciliator's finding. A new contractor was appointed to complete the work at a cost of €27 million. According to the council, the new contractor carried out only a limited proportion of the measures that UCL said were necessary.
The dispute with UCL went to arbitration, with the decision in 2005 again going in UCL's favour. The arbitrator found UCL had carried out the tunnelling competently. The council appealed this decision to the High Court, but it ruled there were insufficient grounds to merit its intervention.Mr Purcell said the department had paid almost €64 million so far, but the final cost of the project will be about €83 million.
