§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales for what reasons the construction of the alternative feeding grounds for wading birds was omitted from the re-advertisement of the specifications of the tender to construct the proposed Cardiff bay barrage in the supplement to theOfficial Journal of the European Communities dated 5 June; and what difference it made to the total estimated construction cost.
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§ Mr. David HuntThe construction of the alternative feeding grounds for wading birds was omitted from Cardiff Bay Development Corporation's re-advertisement since the Select Committee required the provision for the feeding grounds to be removed from the Cardiff Bay Barrage Bill. The indicative value of £112 million given in the advertisement should have been reduced by the £5.7 million cost of the feeding ground to £106 million. As I indicated in my answer to the hon. Gentleman on 16 June the estimated value in the advertisement is intended to be purely indicative of the scale of the project.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales for what reasons it was decided to increase the volume of dredged material in the specification for the construction of the Cardiff bay barrage from 1,000,000 m3 to 1,700,000 m3, and for sandfill from 1,300,000 m3 to 1,500,000 m3 between the original advertisement in the supplement to the Official Journal of the European Communities dated 14 November 1990 and the most recent re-advertisement dated 5 June 1992.
§ Mr. David HuntFollowing completion of ground investigations and detailed design of the barrage, allowance has been made for removal of all soft material from beneath the locks, sluices and Penarth Link, and removal of some soft material from beneath the embankment. This is required to avoid problems during construction and to ensure the complete structure integrity of the finished structure. It has resulted in the increases in dredging and sandfill quantities.
§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the increase since November 1990 in cost and in percentage terms of the proposed Cardiff bay barrage exclusive of the cost of the alternative feeding grounds.
§ Mr. David HuntIf the cost of the alternative feeding grounds had been excluded from the November 1990 prequalification notice, the cost of the Cardiff bay barrage would have been £82 million at 1988–89 prices. The equivalent figure for the latest notice is £106 million at 1991–92 prices. Estimated construction costs exclusive of the alternative feeding grounds have therefore risen by £24 million or 29 per cent. over a period of some three years.