Airports operator denies media reports that movement of ground beneath terminal is causing cracks

BAA has rubbished claims by the Daily Mail that movement of the ground below Terminal 5 is causing tiles to crack and that experts have been called in to investigate.

The newspaper reported that the £4.3bn building has been built on London clay, which is gradually pushing the building up. It said that the problem would not be short term and quoted an engineer saying that things had been made worse as BAA had “chosen a cheaper foundation design that is not as effective in guarding against heave as others”.

But BAA has hit back at claims there are any major problems. Media relations manager, Mary Kearney said: “Terminal 5 does not have any structural problem caused by subsidence. Every building goes through a natural process of settling. To suggest that means there is a problem with Terminal 5 is, therefore, quite simply wrong.”

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