INBRIEF

BAA admits delay...

BAA chief exec Sir John Egan admitted this week that there will be 'some delay to the Heathrow Express project'. The œ300m link was due to open in December 1997, but will now be several months late following the tunnel collapse. There is no start date yet for remedial work.

jle delay denied...

Reports that the Jubilee Line Extension project is running two years late and at twice the œ1.9 billion budget have been described as 'absolute nonsense' by project director Hugh Doherty.

...as Tracy bores on

Tracy the tunnel boring machine is expected to resume work on the North Greenwich section of the Jubilee Line on Monday. The machine stopped after problems with the head seals on sister borer Sharon. There are talks with main contractor McAlpine-Wayss/Freitag-Bachy over its return date.

Professions reply on liability

Reform of the liability law and mandatory latent defects insurance are so closely related that both should be realised for either to be effective, according to the professional institutions of the Construction Industry Council. See page 6 for contractors' response.

EC approves pipeline

Plans for a œ400m undersea pipeline between the UK and the Continent have been approved by the EC. British Gas has a 40% stake in the nine-member consortium building the 150 mile pipe.

Llewellyn buys scl

The Llewellyn Group has bought SCL Group, formerly Sika Contracts, and formed a new company Llewellyn SCL to carry out waterproof rendering.

Urban design campaign

John Gummer has launched the urban design campaign aimed at involving people in improving urban design in the areas they live in.