Lincoln Eastern Bypass in limbo after Carillion collapse

Questions have been raised over who will complete the £99 million Lincoln Eastern Bypass after primary contractor Carillion entered liquidation.

As previously reported, Carillion has gone into liquidation following struggles with debts of £900 million.

Lincolnshire County Council, which appointed Carillion as its primary contractor for the Lincoln Eastern Bypass, is now determining how to continue with the development.

Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

Carillion, which was contracted for £53 million worth of work, has so far completed 10% of the work on the Lincoln Eastern Bypass.

It has been paid £5 million of the contract and is still owed £200,000 by the council.

Some work will continue to be carried out by the contractor for the foreseeable future.

Officials have now said it will take ‘a few months’ to find a new contractor to complete the remainder of work.

Richard Wills, Executive Director for Highways at Lincolnshire County Council

Richard Wills, Executive Director for Highways, said: “Despite this morning’s announcement about going into liquidation, Carillion will continue on with some works to the bypass today and for the foreseeable future, but this situation is constantly changing and is dependent on a number of other factors.

“In the meantime, we will continue investigating how to best proceed with the project.

“The most likely situation is that we will appoint a new contractor to manage and deliver the construction element of the scheme; however, we’ll be looking at all of the potential options over the coming days.

“To date, Carillion has only completed about 10% of the work awarded to them and they haven’t started any of the really big and difficult work yet. This is good as it means it will be much easier for another contractor to step in once appointed.”