THE main contractor on the Dublin Port Tunnel is preparing a claim that could reach €300m against Dublin City Council.

If successful, the claim would add almost 40pc to the total cost of the €751m project, making it top €1bn.

Nishimatsu Mowlem Irishenco (NMI), a Japanese, British and Irish consortium, has instructed PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants to aid its preparation of the claim.

The claim arises, NMI believes, because of unexpected costs and delays in the project. The claim is currently looking like approaching €300m, according to a source, but this could change as the process continues.

It is standard practice, the source added, for claims initially to include all alleged costs and then be negotiated downwards.

Both NMI and Dublin City Council declined to comment yesterday.

NMI was awarded the £353m (€448m) - including VAT - contract to build the 5.6km long project, 4.5km of which is in tunnel, in October 2000.

The size of the contract was allowed to vary if the price of plant, machinery, materials etc, as measured by standard indices, changed.

However, the NMI claim will maintain that the cost of the project shot up because of additional factors outside their control.

The Port Tunnel was originally scheduled to be completed in early 2005.

But it is now due to officially open around April of next year.

A number of factors are alleged to have driven up NMI's costs.

These are understood to include additional costs arising from overtime and night work.

Other costs were associated with stoppages and changes in practices associated with complaints by Iarnrod Eireann, who claimed to be affected by Dublin Port Tunnel work.

This included a claim in January 2003 by Irish Rail that alleged subsidence under a busy train track was caused by the tunnel.

The claim examines if demands made by resident engineers, appointed to oversee the major infrastructure project on behalf of the State, may have unduly slowed down the project.

A number of significant variation orders/ diversion of services orders that arose during excavation are also part of the claim.

Tom Lyons

© Irish Independent

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