The Aoki/Soletanche JV’s ongoing payment wrangle for work completed on London’s Jubilee Line Extension could be resolved in the next few months.
A likely settlement figure for contracts 103 and 105, which covered construction of over 10km of tunnels and of Southwark and Bermondsey underground stations, has been reported to be in the region of $144m. If this figure is accurate, it will mean that contracts 103 and 105 will have cost the taxpayer $352m. The original tender value for the contracts was $209m.
Soletanche is now being wound up as a seperate company, but managing director David Sherwood denied suggestions that this was a consequence of the JLE work.
"The decision to close the firm was made in 1997 when Soletanche merged with Bachy to form a new company," he said. "We were simply waiting to complete outstanding Soletanche contracts including JLE." He said final year trading for Soletanche will return pre tax profits "exceeding $3.2m".
