Fornebubanen cost overrun, Digi Mart USA News (Oslo, Norway): Finansavisen reports, citing its own sources, that new cost overruns on the Fornebubanen metro project in Oslo could total between 3 and 4 billion Norwegian kroner.
According to the newspaper, the largest increases stem from work on Fornebu station and the depot. Costs for the raw structure alone are estimated at around 1.5 billion kroner, partly due to a far greater need for reinforcing steel than planned.
Interior fittings and technical installations are expected to show a budget deviation of roughly 1 billion kroner. The contract for the Fornebuporten and Flytårnet stations is also expected to become significantly more expensive.
Norwegian Minister of Transport Kamzy Gunaratnam (Labour Party) has also acknowledged that the cost situation is serious in a recent response, according to Finansavisen. The minister confirmed that an updated forecast of the final cost is being prepared and noted that the increase affects both the financing need and the planned use of toll revenue in a revised Oslo Package 3.
Last autumn, it became known that Fornebubanen could cost more than 1 billion kroner above the previously approved budget. Following this, Oslo’s municipal audit office announced it would examine the major project.
The background was a new crack linked to work at the far end of the line, where both the terminal station and the depot for the Fornebu metro cars are to be built.
Fornebubanen announced on November 12 that costs would exceed the management framework of 27.5 billion kroner, but did not give an exact overrun figure beyond saying it was more than 1 billion kroner.
