On Monday morning there was an opportunity for members to hear directly from Brian Smith exactly what the current state of play is with the Guided Busway. This was a prelude to the issue being presented to Cabinet next week.The Cabinet Agenda is accompanied by an excellent briefing note. If you want a detailed explanation of where we are and a little on how we got here then I urge you to read it. This briefing note was prepared by officers of the County Council and so is completely non-political.
In summary the remaining "big" issues are:
- River Great Ouse Viaduct (not-to-plan construction will lead to ongoing maintenance issues the Council isn't happy with)
- St Ives Park and Ride Site (surface water due to incorrect gradient being used during construction)
- Maintenance track flooding (parts of it are underwater because it seems to have been built incorrectly in a drainage ditch)
- Guideway Foundations (switching for piling to pad foundations - sinking issue?)
- Gaps between the guideway beams (summer expansion might cause issues)
- Rubber tyre infill between guideway beams (potential fire risk)
If reports in the Cambridge Evening News are correct this could drag on for another five years.
1 comment:
The incompetence of the busway design and construction is endemic in the UK. Compared with Germany, the UK is cheapskate. After 31 years of Thatcherite governments, what else can we expect. Sadly the LibDems are now also Thatcherites since Kennedy was stabbed in the back. So even if you were the government the same sorry story of competitive tender for the cheapest builder would go on. This is the result, and the same sorry sordid story will go on after the next election.
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