Nothing fits at pounds 250 Westminster block

PROGRESS on a controversial new office block for MPs, being built opposite Big Ben, has been subject to an expensive delay because prefabricated pillars and floor panels are the wrong size.

Workmen on the pounds 250m site have been struggling to patch up the problem after they discovered that some crucial components of the flagship building had been made to the wrong specification.

MPs from Parliament's Accommodation and Works Committee have been informed that some of the building's giant floor panels, made by a Belgian company, also did not fit and had to be replaced.

Some of the massive reinforced-concrete pillars - made within 5mm specifications - were found to be the wrong size.

Workmen have spent weeks creating new joints to make the faulty pillars fit. They have been filling in the gaps with concrete, drilling new holes and shaving off bits of metal.

"They are the wrong size - and we're not talking millimetres," said one of the construction team. "It's a bit of a nightmare."

The mistakes have delayed the project, although the companies involved have agreed to pick up the bill for the mistakes. The cost of delays, labour and recasting is said to have run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The office is being built above the new Westminster Tube station. Because its foundation is not solid, the windows, floor and pillars which hold the building are pre-cast to precise measurements and lowered down on giant cranes.

This method, popular in the 1960s and 1970s, is seldom used in Britain. On most modern construction sites, the walls, floors, window frames and pillars are made on site.

The pre-fabricated parts of the building have to fit together like a jigsaw. If one element is out of sync, the whole project can be delayed.

The revelation that some of the crucial features of the building are the wrong size will be discussed by a committee of MPs monitoring the site when they return from the recess.

"We are watching this very, very closely," said Andrew Dismore, Labour MP for Hendon, who sits on the Accommodation and Works Committee.

"We are aware there have been some problems and that some panels have been recast.

"We get reports on a regular basis."

The building, which will house 205 MPs and their staff, is among the most expensive in Europe. Each MP's office, to be completed in 2001, will cost around pounds 1m.

The cost of the seven-storey bronze, stone and glass block has nearly doubled since the building was first approved in 1992. It will include a pounds 30m bronze facade, and an interior courtyard with a series of fine sandstone pillars. The mounting cost has prompted anger from MPs, who have called for an inquiry into the extra burden on taxpayers imposed by the building, which will be known as Portcullis House.

The project managers have blamed inflation and delays in construction - partly caused by a year spent waiting for the completion of the new London Underground station underneath, for the spiralling costs.

Last week, construction experts condemned the spending of more than pounds 30m on the bronze facade of the new office block. But the managers of the site have said that they are confident that the delays will not prolong the project's 2001 deadline.