A total of £476m in the London 2012 Olympic contingency budget is still unallocated, despite a series of last minute costs incurred in the Olympic Park construction projects.
According to the latest quarterly budget update published this week by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Olympic Delivery Authority’s “contractual close-out” costs rose on the Park’s structures, bridges and highways by £12m.
At 31st March 2012, compared to the budget published on 31st December 2011, there was an £11m increase in the Athletes’ Village construction costs, including a £5m bill for retro-fitting the apartments after the Games.
An increase of £3m on the International Broadcast Centre and Main Press Centre also reflects close-out cost pressures.
On the other hand, the ODA managed to make a saving of £8m from a reduction in delivery partner CLM’s fee and IT cost savings.
But this £8m saving still puts the overall “programme delivery fee” for construction projects at the Olympic Park at £729m. As the website Construction Enquirer points out, this sum is higher than construction of the main stadium at £428m, the Aquatics centre at £253m, and the Athletes’ village at £712m.
The ODA told Construction Enquirer that not all of the programme delivery fee would be payable to CLM, the consortium owned 40% by Laing O’Rourke, 40% by CH2M Hill and 20% by Mace.
The programme delivery fee was estimated at £647m in November 2007.
