Tramworks to resume with fresh contract

DRIVERS in Edinburgh’s west end face months of disruption from later this month under plans for the next phase of tram line building in the city.

Traffic will be diverted around the work in Haymarket and Shandwick Place until next spring if councillors agree to press ahead with the scheme to the city centre next week.

The work will come as the first tangible sign of progress on the ill-fated construction project since the resolution of a bitter two-year dispute between city council tram developers Tie and contractors led by German firm Bilfinger Berger.

The dispute centred on the cost of changes to the scheme, which has delayed the opening of even a truncated line until 2014 and could hike the cost to £773 million from its £545m budget.

The latest work, due to start on Saturday, 10 September, will include track laying, and the erection of the first overhead power lines on the Edinburgh Airport-St Andrew Square route, orginally planned to Newhaven.

Eastbound traffic will be diverted via Magdala Crescent, Eglinton Crescent and Palmerston Place. Westbound vehicles will be unaffected.

Advance work to install new traffic lights is due start on Monday, 29 August. The work is due to be followed by a further phase on the Haymarket station side of the junction next spring.

Traders, who have been informed of the planned works, have been advised the start date “is subject to change pending a decision on the tram project by the council on 25 August”.

A Tie spokesman said the work depended on a formal resolution of the dispute with a revised contract with the construction consortium.

Pending the end of hostilities, only limited work agreed by both sides has continued, including in and around the Gogar depot. The spokesman said: “Subject to the approval of funding by councillors, work on areas other than priority areas can begin.”