Green action hits workload

The cost of supplying site security to combat action by environmentalists is likely to deprive the road industry of at least one major contract this year.

Already the bill for handling protestors at Twyford Down has been officially said to be œ1.9 million and tenderers for the Newbury bypass have been told to add a œ1 million provisional sum to their bill to cover site security.

On top of this Alfred McAlpine has been told to spend nearly œ500,000 of its œ8.6 million tender price for the Cradlewell bypass on protecting the site and Amey says it is receiving monthly payments for site security on the Batheaston bypass.

With more sensitive contracts still to come and the taxpayer liable for the cost of protest, the money lost will almost certainly deprive the roads programme of a œ20 - œ25 million scheme. And this could be repeated each year while problems persist.

A Highways Agency spokesperson denied that there were plans to allow a sum for protecting sites on every future contract saying 'each individual scheme would be looked at on a case by case basis'. He added that 'the taxpayer would have to pick up the bill' for any problems experienced by the contractor over site possession and that the HA was currently looking into the whole problem of protestors on site.

Estimators say they would welcome any improvement in the current situation because margins are too tight to allow for any element of building in site security costs at tender stage, and that contractors could have to wait for claims to be settled before they can get these costs reimbursed.

The Cradlewell contract allowed 5% of the tender price for site security and if this was repeated for every DoT scheme, then the annual cost would be œ100 million.

Nobody in the industry expects this to happen but with the DoE having identified 103 schemes which it calls highly controversial, there is a growing fear that more and more of the DoT's finite resources will have to be put aside for site security leaving less for actual roadbuilding.

The DoE problem list includes œ88 million Beckington to East of Bath Bypass, which it reckons to be even more controversial than the Batheaston - Swainswick improvement, the M25 widening schemes in West London and the A303 improvement around Stonehenge.