The final accounts of piling specialist, Soletanche have shown $7M worth of pay-offs that include major claim settlements for work on London’s Jubilee Line Extension.
The company, that finally closed down at the end of last year, was kept going purely to resolve contract disputes. The $7M represents payback of losses accrued from the period 1996-1998.
Soletanche worked on the $183M JLE contracts 103 and 105 in JV with Japanese tunnelling contractor Aoki. Unforeseen ground conditions on the contract lead to an 18 month delay.
A string of disputes followed that took until early 2000 to resolve, forcing Aoki to retrench and focus on Japan’s domestic market.
Soletanche were finally bought by French company Bachy in 1997.
