Cost of Holyrood strut failure near the £200k mark

Costs for the inconvenience caused by the closure of the debating chamber of the £431m Holyrood Parliament building are nearing £200,000.

The chamber, constructed by Laing O’Rourke, was closed two weeks ago after a strut came loose from its mounting during a Parliamentary debate.

It will be another two weeks before Arup completes its investigation of the strut after initially discovering that one of the strut’s supporting bolts had fractured and another one was missing.

In its fourth and latest report, Arup said tests had shown that thread at the end of the bolt had been damaged and jammed against the thread of the socket. It added that the head of the bolt had been badly damaged. ‘Clearly there had been some difficulty in installing this particular bolt,” the report added.

O’Rourke would not comment on events at Holyrood.

n A total of 890 defects and snagging issues need attention on the £431m Holyrood building project, according to presiding officer George Reid.