Fort George clean up won’tfinish ‘til 2013

The Sentinel recently reported how the multimillion pound decontamination of the former army base has been delayed by many months - until January 2013 at the earliest.

Now Mr McCausland has revealed that whilst the ‘Design’ stage of the clean-up contract has already been awarded the ‘construction’ contract for cleaning up the former army base - the proposed site of a new jobs-boosting Science Park - won’t be advertised until September.

SDLP MLA Colum Eastwood asked the Minister why the decontamination contract for Fort George, which was due to have been awarded by the end of 2011, will now only be entering the tendering phase in September 2012, with tenders to be returned by January 2013.

Mr McCausland explained: “The Fort George Project is a New Engineering ‘Design and Construct’ Contract. The ‘Design’ and Construct’ elements are tendered separately.

“Following a competitive tender process at the end of 2011, the ‘Design’ element was awarded to Consulting Engineers White Young Green in February 2012. White Young Green will produce the remediation strategy for Fort George, following which, they will produce the tender documents relating to the engagement of a remediation contractor.

“It is expected that the ‘Construct’ element will enter the tender process in September 2012 with tenders to be returned by January 2013. The entire Fort George decontamination project is due for completion at the end of 2013.

“However, the timeframes for projects of this nature are flexible as the level of variables are high until various tests and technical strategies are produced and agreed with the Northern Ireland Environmental Agency and City Council’s Environmental Health.”