Costain/Skanska in £1m law suit

Exclusive by Michael Gordon



Costain Construction and Skanska International Building are being sued for over £1 million by concrete specialist Bowercross. The action relates to construction of the £35 million five-star Radisson SAS hotel at Manchester Airport where Bowercross carried out concrete superstructure works.

The hotel is being officially opened next week and took two years to complete from the start of design to being fully fitted out. It features an unusual design consisting of a structural steel frame up to the fourth floor with a reinforced concrete cellular box rising above. The design has been used before by Skanska in Scandinavia.

A spokesman for Costain said: "Writs have been served and we have acknowledged receipt of them. We are considering the claims and discussions continue, and if these are not successful we expect any disputes will be resolved by arbitration/mediation."

In the first writ Bowercross claims it is owed £863,095. It is claimed that the Costain/Skanska design-and-build joint venture took price discounts for prompt payment. Bowercross argues that the payments it received were late and therefore the joint venture was not entitled to any discounts. Bowercross is also claiming compensation for Costain/Skanska's alleged refusal to return borrowed scaffolding and props.

In a second writ for £262,347, the specialist contractor claims that Costain/Skanska breached the contract by carrying out foundation works and deleting other works from the programme which were originally due to be undertaken by Bowercross.