Council confirms it has resolved disputes and signed agreement with main contractor to complete line into city centre
After months of U-turns, delays, splits and disputes, the crisis-hit Edinburgh tram project has finally been put back on the rails.
On Thursday, Edinburgh council confirmed it had signed a new deal with its main trams contractor, the German engineering firm Bilfinger Berger, to complete the shortened tramline into the city centre.
The contract was signed after days of negotiations between the firm and the council, and several hours after a final deadline to agree the deal had expired.
Two weeks ago, the project came close to collapse after the council's Labour and Tory opposition groups stunned the city by winning a vote to end the line at Haymarket, a terminus two miles short of the planned stop at St Andrew's Square in the city centre.
That vote was overturned at an emergency meeting when Labour reversed its stance and the Scottish National Party ended its longstanding opposition to the project.
Both parties voted to build the line to St Andrew Square at an increased cost of �776m. With interest payments, that figure could eventually exceed �1bn.
The trams are now expected to start operating by the summer of 2014 ? about four years late, �250m over the original budget and eight stops short of the original destination in Newhaven, on the city's shoreline.
The news followed confirmation on Wednesday that the Scottish government would release the final �72m tranche of funding for the scheme, but it has imposed new conditions.
Alex Neil, the infrastructure minister, finally gave in to repeated demands from groups such as Audit Scotland for Transport Scotland to be brought into the project.
The agency's director for major infrastructure projects, Ainslie McLaughlin, has been co-opted on to the project's management board, while several other senior Transport Scotland staff will be brought in to help its final delivery.
There are still last-minute wrangles to resolve over whether or not staff salaries and costs will be met from the trams budget.
A council spokesman said: "Negotiations have concluded between the council and the consortium. The final session started yesterday and finished early this morning, during which time the legal agreements were finalised and signed."
The shortened eight mile line will now cost more than �100m a mile, but the council believes it will become the basis for a larger tram network around the city.
Officials say major engineering firms such as Mott MacDonald and Bombardier have approached the council offering to get involved in constructing new lines.
The existing tramline will be completed to Newhaven, and supporters of the scheme believe the plans to build extra lines running north to south and to the south-east will also eventually go ahead.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/15/edinburgh-tram-project-back-on-track
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