Overall cost of delayed scheme rockets to nearly £1bn
Kier has formally signed the main construction contract on a new £684m prison scheme in Scotland that will replace the country’s Barlinnie jail.
HMP Glasgow will have space for 1,344 prisoners and is being built to replace Barlinnie, which opened in 1880.
Scotland’s justice secretary Angela Constance said the entire scheme will cost £999m and will open in 2028, three years later than originally planned.
Constance said the “significant increase” in costs – up from a previous estimate in 2022 of £400m – was due to wider increases across the sector such as the covid pandemic, Brexit and the war in Ukraine while the original prison was smaller.
Kier, which signed a pre-construction contract in July 2022, has been on site since October 2023 carrying out early works to remediate the brownfield site, which once housed a gas works, in Glasgow’s East End.
Work is due to finish in 2028, having first been slated to complete in 2023 before the job was put on hold because of rocketing costs.
>> See also: The power of four: how UK’s biggest builders are working together on £1bn prisons programme
Two years ago, Barlinnie’s governor said the prison had become so overcrowded that a “catastrophic failure” was possible.
Designed by architect Holmes Miller, others working on the scheme include M&E engineer Arup, civils and structures consultant Curtins as well as groundworks and civils contractor Careys and precast concrete supplier PCE.
Kier’s other major prison schemes include HMP Millsike, near York and opposite the existing Full Sutton prison, which is due to open later this year. It also built HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, which opened three years ago.
Both jobs used a houseblock design that was manufactured off site.
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