An exclusive story in the Edinburgh Evening News has revealed that concrete cracks have been found in 75 locations on the tram extension to Newhaven which opened to the public in June 2023. Work to repair these cracks – with some repairs having to be repaired again – is already underway with original Sacyr Farrans Neopul (SFN) consortium completing the work under the two year defect liability period.
Quoted in the Evening News, Cllr Stephen Jenkinson, Transport and environment convener, said that the work was nothing untoward: “We’re aware of a number of defects and incomplete works that remain outstanding from the construction of the York Place to Newhaven section of the line. These works and the associated costs are covered under the two-year defects liability period and we’re working with the contractor SFN to resolve these promptly.
“We’ve carried out around 25 repairs to date on these. We’ve been monitoring the repairs and the majority of them have stood up to traffic volumes, but a small number of locations are showing new signs of cracking. Depending upon the overall success of some trial repairs that we have undertaken, that solution may be used by the construction contractor to rectify the remaining concrete defects of that nature, in due course.”
“I’d emphasise that some cracking is a normal occurrence as part of the drying process, alongside vibration from tram and vehicle movements. The tram infrastructure is regularly inspected as part of normal business by Edinburgh Trams and the tram infrastructure maintenance contractor.”
The work is taking place overnight and is not impacting tram services.
It could be worse it could be cracks in trams