New terminal at Heathrow terminally over budget

The new passenger under construction at London’s Heathrow International Airport, known as T5 is coming in over ₤100 million over the initial budget. Rising 50 % from the originally planned figure is the amount of man-hours required for the mechanical and electrical aspects of construction.

A recent tally has shown that with 8.8 million man-hours logged already, the original estimate for 6 million man hours for the entire job is now clearly impossible. A source close to the job was quoted as saying, ‘There are some huge numbers there in terms of cost overruns. Every spark [electrician] is being paid £21-an-hour, plus there are the incidental costs of employing people, so the real price to the client is around £30 to £35 an hour. Multiply that by nearly 3 million man hours over budget and you’re talking a lot of cash.’

Despite the whisperings of great oversights, BAA is still claiming the new terminal is on time and on schedule for completion. A BAA spokeswoman said, ‘Changes to the scope of work have resulted in changes to resource requirements. However, over the next few weeks the number of workers on site will reduce in line with a planned rundown of resources.’

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