A final decision on whether to press ahead with plans to extend Edinburgh Trams from the current city centre terminus of York Place to Newhaven via Leith Walk will not be made until early 2019 to allow full evaluations of tenders to take place before the Final Business Case is considered. It had previously been expected that the final decision would be made before the end of 2018.<\/p>\n
Tenders for the construction of the extension were received in early September and these are now being evaluated by officials from the Trams to Newhaven project. The final stage in the process is to seek best and final offers from the bidders and to clarify specific elements of the bids received. This will then be used to complete the Final Business Case which will then be presented to Councillors to enable them to make a decision on whether to give the go-ahead to constructing the extension.<\/p>\n
Cllr Lesley Macinnes, Transport and Environment Convener, said: \u201cWe have adopted a very thorough and robust process for the Trams to Newhaven project throughout, learning crucial lessons from what went wrong previously. We have been very clear from the outset that we will not bring forward the Final Business Case for tram until we have vigorously tested the cost and time estimates with the market.”<\/p>\n
Public consultation into the proposals for the line is also continuing with the deadline for views now extended until Sunday 11th November. The latest plans can be viewed on the City of Edinburgh Council\u2019s Consultation Hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A final decision on whether to press ahead with plans to extend Edinburgh Trams from the current city centre terminus of York Place to Newhaven via Leith Walk will not be made until early 2019 to allow full evaluations of … Continue reading