It was initially between SEK 300 and 500 million. Now the bill for the bath house in Kiruna is up to 820 million and continues to grow in pace with more delays.
Cold facts have been reviewed by the consultant Mille Örnmark and the company We Group, which was commissioned by the municipality to lead the construction.
– If the project had consistently had good project management and project management, then we would have been sitting here in swimming trunks right now, says Johan Bergstad, municipal manager in Kiruna.
Internal notes from several crisis meetings show how the builder Peab repeatedly requested drawings, documents and a timetable with coordination of the various stages from the project manager We Group.
In 2021, Peab reports to the municipality in an email and expresses the disappointment that a coordinated production schedule has still not succeeded, even though work had been going on for almost a year.
“The situation is absurd and shows with all desirable clarity that the competence required to carry out this work is lacking at We Group,” wrote Peab.
Walls got the wrong color and wrong dimensions
The problems resulted, for example, in walls being given the wrong dimensions, culverts being bricked up, the wrong blasting being done so that it was not possible to lay tiles and stainless steel being drawn in which is not suitable for a bath house. And the material that the roof beams were supposed to rest on cracked because they were the wrong size.
After a full year of discussion about the roof, Peab wrote to Kiruna municipality again, in March 2022, that the roof was still not fully designed by We Group.
Mille Örnmark, CEO of We Group, refutes the criticism and believes that the errors were the responsibility of the construction contractors.
– It is exciting that you transfer your own mistakes to someone else. That’s how I would like it too. If the contractor does not follow the construction documents, it should not be our responsibility, says Mille Örnmark to Kalla fakta about the criticism.
Corresponds to 50 employees in home care
Kiruna municipality, in turn, comments that according to the agreement, We Group would show what was to be carried out and how the execution would be done. The municipality does not share We Group’s view of the reasons for the delay.
The operating costs alone when the bathhouse is ready will burden Kiruna municipality’s budget with 30 million annually.
– Yes, 30 million, that’s about 50 employees in home care, says Kiruna’s municipal director Johan Bergstad.