Steelwork firm Severfield won’t face any extra bill for the bolts which broke away from the City’s Cheesegrater skyscraper this month, boss Ian Lawson claimed today.
The company erected all the steelwork on the British Land building but faced huge overruns on that contract and others two years ago, forcing it into an emergency rights issue and costing the chief executive his job.
Severfield is working with builder Laing O’Rourke and engineer Arup in the probe into why parts of the two “mega-bolts” fell off.
“All the bolts and all the steelwork comes with certification from where they were sourced... At this stage, we’re not anticipating any provisions,” Lawson said, adding: “Severfield is very proud of being involved with that building, although it was a building that cost the business a significant amount of money. But the business stuck at it and that stood us in very good stead with clients like British Land.”
British Land’s team is testing every one of the 3000 bolts on the structure and will publish the results in January.
Severfield’s latest London contracts include Amazon’s new headquarters at Principal Place, while the company is also working on the redevelopment of London Bridge station as well as Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium.
Underlying pre-tax profits more than doubled to £3 million in the six months to September 30 as the company focuses on boosting margins. UK orders were up to £185 million as of November 1, from £168 million in May.
