Birmingham’s Camp Hill line project faces delays but may still finish by 2025
Birmingham: The Camp Hill line project has been a hot topic lately. People were really hoping for some good news, but it seems like delays are still a thing. Just last month, Transport for West Midlands announced that the completion date has been pushed back to 2025. That’s a whole year later than expected, and it’s all due to a hefty £121 million increase in costs.
This isn’t the first time the project has faced setbacks. Originally, it was supposed to wrap up in 2023. West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker is understandably frustrated. He’s calling for a review of all transport projects, worried about funding and delays. He even pointed fingers at his predecessor, Andy Street, for making big promises that haven’t come through.
Street, on the other hand, isn’t too happy about the blame game. He claims he left behind a solid financial foundation for the new mayor to work with. But the big question remains: will the Camp Hill project actually finish on time, or will commuters face more headaches?
To get to the bottom of things, Parker brought in Arup for a thorough review. The good news? They found the project is at ‘low risk’ for more delays. However, they did mention that some extra funding might be needed to get everything done.
Despite some concerns from the project manager about hitting the end-of-year deadline, Arup reassured everyone that there’s a solid plan in place. They even shared that the project’s cost-effectiveness score is looking good at 1.24, which is promising.
Phase 2 is already in motion, with designs and surveys all wrapped up. Construction is expected to finish by the end of 2025, but there’s still some uncertainty. The project manager has low confidence in that timeline, but they’ve got a detailed schedule to follow.
As of now, £69 million has been approved for the project, with most of it already spent. It looks like some additional funds might be necessary to see it through to the end.
