Mowlem’s engineering managing director Norman Davies may have been proud of being involved with the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, but the project has endured a fair few problems, even at its grand opening.

The 170m seafront tower was supposed to be ready for the start of the Millennium but, like an unfortunate vessel of the kind it’s meant to represent, it was still stuck in the docks when the clocks chimed midnight. It eventually set sail five years late and, at £35.5m, £10m over budget. There were rumours in the press that it had developed a huge crack, which was denied by the project team. Fathers 4 Justice and a base jumper targeted the building and, if this wasn’t enough, spare a thought for council project manager David Greenhalgh, who got trapped in the lift 100ft up. Praise be for the abseiling engineers who rescued him.

Source

Construction Manager