A building company is suing a Bristol engineer for more than £1.3m, claiming that he was negligent in designing foundations for a student accommodation project.
Construction contractor United Integrated Solutions plc, formerly TNG Design & Build, has issued a High Court writ against consulting engineer Ian Caldwell, trading as Caldwell Consulting Engineers, over the Frogmore Street project in Bristol.
Caldwell designed a piling system for the works, specifying a driven 220m steel-case piling system to carry a load of 450kg per single pile, and is said to have claimed that this was acceptable to Bristol City Council.
Work got under way in August 1998, but in October the council told United, which was the main contractor, to stop work immediately, as they had not approved the foundation design. Following investigations, a pile was found to have a kinked end, according to the writ.
United later terminated Caldwell’s appointment after he failed to satisfy it and the council over the adequacy of the design for the piling system.
Now United claims that Caldwell was in breach of warranty, and failed to exercise all reasonable skill and care in the design works, selection of materials and performance specification. It alleges that he was negligent and designed a pile-supported foundation that was inadequate to penetrate the hard rock below ground.
United seeks £917,280 damages, attributable to the need to suspend the works and redesign the foundations, plus other costs amounting to around £400,000.
PLS News 13/2/01
