In the news

The demolition of a leisure centre in Wales will cost an extra £1m and has been delayed by 18 months after asbestos was found.

A report by the BBC on the 8 January 2018 found that a survey of Abertillery Leisure Centre missed the brown asbestos in spite of the asbestos report indicating that the cavity wall had been checked.

Whatever the reasons, finding unexpected asbestos material is a nightmare scenario. The additional costs of remediating it may well be overshadowed by the inevitable delays to programme and the disruption caused to the project team, other contractors and the buildings’ occupants.  In this case the demolition work was set to cost just under £400,000, but the council has now awarded a contract costing £998,992 to remove the asbestos before the building can be torn down. Asbestos removal work began in December and is set to finish in May, but the demolition is now not due to finish until August.

The full report can be read here.