CH2M boss says Olympics will top £12bn

project manager CH2M Hill told an audience of US academics that the cost of Olympics projects would hit £12bn even before Tessa Jowell announced cost hikes last week.

Don Evans, chief executive of CH2M Hill, which is part of delivery partner CLM, gave a presentation to delegates at Stanford University in California on 13 November, in which he admitted the estimated cost of the scheme was £12bn.

The presentation, obtained by Building, puts figures on a series of costs including a £2.4bn estimate for the Olympic park. Tessa Jowell last week said this had risen to £3.3bn

Evans said the estimated cost of total Olympic programme, including facilities, infrastructure and security was £10bn, and that the value of all works would be £12bn.

An Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) spokesperson said that the key figure was the £2.4bn one. He said other figures were to do with work beyond the ODA’s remit, despite the fact that Evans placed the costs under the headings of “Olympic programme facilities” and “all works associated with the Games”.

In a separate development, the Culture Department (DCMS) said this week that CLM, the ODA’s delivery partner for the Games, would receive about £100m for its services, despite the fact that Jowell last week put the figure at £400m.

A spokesperson for the DCMS said the £100m was just guidance. He said: “We can’t put a specific figure on it at the moment because it is partly performance based.”

The total amount received by CLM will depend on whether it achieves its time and budget targets.

The remaining £300m will be spent on recruiting project managers, planners and engineers within the ODA.