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Asbestos and damage discovery inflates Big Ben repair bill to £ 80m – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

Asbestos and damage discovery inflates Big Ben repair bill to £ 80m – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

Conservation work on Elizabeth Tower is ‘more complex than anticipated’

Work on the – year-old Elizabeth Tower is expected to be completed by the end of next year. Photograph: Toby Melville / Reuters

The repair bill to fix parliament’s Elizabeth Tower that houses Big Ben has increased by £ .6m to nearly £ 98 m following the discovery of asbestos, bomb damage and pollution problems.

Conservation work on the – year-old structure, which is supposed to be completed at the end of next year, led to the discovery by the project team after intrusive surveys, parliamentary officials have disclosed.

The – meter tower, which has become a national symbol since its completion in , has been mostly hidden from view since efforts to restore it began in 2020.

Critics of the £ 3.5bn restoration and renewal program will seize upon the rising cost as a small example of the huge amount that will mount up once peers and MPs move out in four years to allow work to begin across the rest of the building.

Ian Ailles, the director general of the (House of Commons) , said the task of restoring the tower “had been more complex than we could have anticipated”.

“With a sq meters [130 sq ft] footprint and a prime location right in the middle of a busy working parliament, understanding the full extent of the damage to the tower was impossible until the scaffolding was up.

“Alongside other issues, such as the impact of often inappropriate conservation methods used by our predecessors, the corrosive levels of pollution in the atmosphere and the discovery of asbestos in unexpected places, we have only now been able to fully understand the full investment required for this project, ”he said.

The full scale of the conservation effort, which is on track for completion in late , was only revealed once the project team was able to begin intrusive surveys for the first time, officials said.

The House of Commons and (House of Lords) commissions were told that to restore the tower to its previous splendor, the budget would need to rise from £ 82. 1m to £ .7m.

Both commissions heard that painstaking examination of the tower had uncovered decay and damage to hundreds of intricate carvings, asbestos in the belfry, extensive use of toxic lead paint, broken glass in the clock dials and the need to employ a specialist clock expert.

In , work began to examine and repair the tower from the gilt cross and orb at its tip to the bottom of its – step staircase.

Many hundreds of specialist craftspeople from all around the UK are contributing to this conservation project, employing traditional trades, including stone masonry, gilding, glass cutting and horology.

If approved by accounting officers of each House, a new budget of £ . 7m will be set for the project’s completion.

A spokesperson for the House of Commons commission said its members were “extremely disappointed” that more money was required, but they had been assured no more would be asked for after this.

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