New national children’s hospital completion delayed again with June date to be missed
It is the fifteenth time in over four years that a promised completion date has not been met.The new timeline is expected to be confirmed when the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) and Children’s Health Ireland come before the Public Accounts Committee next week.Today's News in 90 Seconds - May 17thThe delayed completion date also means the transfer of services from the existing three children’s hospitals will be put back and an expected Spring opening will not happen until well in to next summer.It is the latest setback in the building of the hospital which has been beset by delays and spiralling costs.The June timeline for completion emerged last autumn before the general election .Prior to that the deadline was February. But now it is being extended again to September.Chief executive of the hospital’s development board, David Gunning, told the Oireachtas health committee last autumn the main contractor, BAM, shifted its substantial completion date 14 times.“In the last 12 months alone, BAM has shifted the substantial completion date four times, pushing out the completion date by a total of eight months.“BAM is currently communicating June 2025 as its anticipated substantial completion date.“In the absence of a written, contractually compliant, realistic and resource-loaded programme, the NPHDB cannot and will not simply accept BAM’s ongoing deferral dates”.Mr Gunning said in January 2019, BAM committed to a peak resource of over 1,700 “productive operatives”.The figure was set out in the contract programme provided by BAM and did not take management into account, Mr Gunning said.However, Mr Gunning said the highest level of resources was 1,260 workers in June 2022 – over 400 fewer than the peak resource levels committed to.“The primary reason why the substantial completion date continues to move out is a lack of resourcing by BAM,” he added.BAM said it “has consistently ensured the project is fully resourced”.The company said that “on several occasions, (BAM) has ensured significantly higher numbers are on site than projected”.It said it forecast a peak resource figure of 1,424 operatives.“BAM hit an actual peak of 1,705 operatives,” the statement said.On the number of operatives working on the hospital site currently, the builder said staffing levels were higher than anticipated.“Currently, the site is resourced at approximately 50pc above the level that was anticipated for this late stage, given the design changes that have occurred,” BAM said.
Comments (0)