Games aquatic centre costs treble

The total cost of the London Olympic aquatic centre has escalated to £214m, almost three times the original price in the bid book and £64m more than previous worst-case estimates. Officials from the Olympic Delivery Authority are currently in final negotiations with the contractor, Balfour Beatty, and a final deal is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Sources close to the negotiations confirmed the price increase to the Guardian and indicated that the government would not sign off the final contract until Balfour Beatty agreed to a total price below £220m. Balfour was the sole contractor to bid for the building, which incorporates two 50-metre pools and a diving pool, and are understood to have set an original price of £250m which was rejected by the ODA and the government.

The two sides have spent two months trying to drive down the figure and the ODA is understood to have secured a deal that delivers a lower margin to Balfour Beatty. While the ODA feels it has done a good deal, the impact of the increase has been felt elsewhere in the Olympic park.

The ODA is committed to not exceeding a total venue budget of £1bn but, with the stadium (£496m) and aquatic centre accounting for £710m, cuts had to be made. Plans for a temporary arena for the fencing events have been abandoned and they will now take place in the ExCel centre, an existing venue south of the park.

The aquatic centre, designed by the award-winning architect Zaha Hadid, was conceived in 2004, before London won the Games. The original design was too large for the space allocated, and a footbridge carrying spectators into the park from Stratford International station would have had to be moved to accommodate it.

In 2005 Tessa Jowell, then the culture secretary, rejected the estimated cost of £150m as too expensive and asked for a redesign. That was one-third smaller than the original but even on a reduced scale it has proved more expensive to build.
