Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - 09:30

£44 MILLION AIRPORT TUNNEL DELAYED DUE TO ‘SUB-STANDARD WORK’ - SAYS GOVT

PANORAMA exclusive

by JOE GARCIA

In an exclusive statement to PANORAMA, the Government says that it will not expedite completion of the airport tunnel at the expense of sub-standard work which does not match British Standards.
It follows a series of completion dates given by the Government over the years which have not been fulfilled.

In fact, I wrote an article as long ago as 2018 which said: "It could be said there is now light at the end of the airport tunnel...The construction of the tunnel works have been entangled in all kinds of problems over the years, even a major legal battle.
"But now, if all goes to plan, the tunnel and associated road works should be complete towards the end of this year. The contract for the tunnel was in fact terminated in 2011 by the previous GSD government after a row with the Spanish contractors.
"Then in 2016, OHL and the new Government reached an agreement according to which the Spanish construction company resumed the works which had been paralysed. Now, if all goes to plan, the tunnel and associated road works should be complete towards the end of this year.
'November 2018' has been pencilled in as the completion date."
So there you are, the Government thought it would be completed way back in 2018! Completion dates have been bandied about by others since then, so we asked ourselves what on earth is going on? Apart from other questions, we asked the Government the following one: Do you have an estimated date when the airport tunnel will be completed?