The ground literally shook beneath the feet of the staff at the Steno Museum when construction workers began driving large iron plates into the ground nearby in the University Park last autumn, on the site where Health is building the Department of Biomedicine's new research building.  

"Museum exhibits simply started falling down from the shelves and some of the large telescopes that we have began to slide out of their mountings," says Bent Lorentzen, who is director of the Steno Museum, which is run by Science and Technology (ST).

The construction of the building was therefore put on standby and Dean Allan Flyvebjerg from Health was forced to consider possible solutions together with the project’s steering committee.

Solution number one: DKK 9 million here and now 

One of the options was for Health to cover the costs while the Steno Museum packed away its exhibits and closed until this phase of the construction work was completed.

Museum Director Bent Lorentzen was therefore asked to calculate the cost of moving the museum exhibits, closing down the museum and re-opening it again. His answer: DKK 9 million. 

Allan Flyvbjerg can't just come up with that figure. He says:

"The faculty doesn’t have nine million in its account. So this would mean finding the money elsewhere in our budgets and in the worst case scenario, having to dismiss employees."

The solution would also mean that the construction work would have to be suspended while the museum packed away its exhibits, also adding to the cost.

The consulting engineers estimated that the cost of placing the construction work on standby, postponing supply agreements plus other consequential costs would be approx. DKK 8.5 million. This figure is taken from an email reply to Omnibus from the Danish Building and Property Agency, who are the contractor on the project.

A continuation of the original method for driving the iron plates into the ground would also risk unforeseen damage to equipment in buildings 1110 and 1120. Like the Steno Museum, vibrations from the construction site have also affected these buildings. Both buildings belong to ST and house the bioinformatics and geology subjects, among other things.  

Solution number two: German assistance for DKK 20 million

So instead of sending a check to his colleague and dean of ST Niels Christian Nielsen, Allan Flyvbjerg chose in collaboration with the project’s steering committee to allow a German subcontractor to take responsibility for driving the iron plates into the ground.

The subcontractor uses a less violent method incorporating slurry walls, which does not make any noise nor send out vibrations.

On the other hand, the decision to import help from Germany has made the construction work about DKK 20 million more expensive, according to the email reply from the Danish Building and Property Agency.

This money must be found elsewhere in the total construction and building and renovation budget of just under DKK 1 billion, says Allan Flyvbjerg.

"The project doesn’t have more money than originally budgeted,” he states.

Forced to sacrifice research facilities

In addition to the construction of the new research building, the total budget also covers the renovation of the Bartholin Building (1240-1245) and the former anatomy building on Wilhelm Meyers Allé (1230-1235), which is now part of the Department of Biomedicine. 

Due to the additional costs arising from the new building, the dean will now be forced into a compromise with the renovation project.

"It means that some of the planned laboratories at anatomy will have to initially be fitted out as offices and meeting rooms,” he says.

However, Allan Flyvbjerg still hopes that it will be possible to find money elsewhere in the overall project, so that the laboratories can still be fitted out as originally planned. 

Facts

Expensive proposed solutions

1) Closing the Steno Museum:

• Approx. DKK 9 million. Money that Dean Allan Flyvbjerg would have to find immediately to cover the costs of closing the museum.
• Approx. DKK 8.5 million in consequential costs from setting the construction work on standby. Money that would have to be found in the total construction budget.
• Total approx. DKK 17.5 million.

2) Changing the method for the shoring work (method for laying the iron plates in the construction):

• Approx. DKK 20 million that would have to be found in the total construction budget.