Club unable to give date of when work will finish
Liverpool has conceded defeat in its efforts to get its delayed Anfield Road stand open this year.
Club chief executive Billy Hogan said it was “not possible at this point to put a new timeline in place” for completion of the project which was being carried out by collapsed contractor Buckingham.
He added: “On a project of this size, information on all the aspects of the work is critical to move forward.
“And what’s become clear in the last few days is there’s just more work to be done in order to get a full project completion plan for the stand, which means unfortunately that the upper tier is not ready to partially or fully open until the end of the calendar year.”
He said Liverpool had taken the decision to keep the upper tier of the stand closed until 2024 to allow fans clarity and the new contractors time to gather all the information they need to complete a revised project schedule.
“On a project of this size, information on all the aspects of the work is critical to move forward,” said Hogan.
Liverpool is now running the job itself after Buckingham sank into administration last month.
The club has appointed Preston-based Rayner Rowen Construction, along with a number of other contractors, to resume the final works on the project.
“Rayner Rowen really needs the time to complete the information-gathering before we commit to any new project timeline,” said Hogan.
“There’s a lot of different, various factors that are going into this discussion and into this review, so many pieces of the jigsaw that we need to pull together so it’s just not possible at this point to put a new timeline in place.”
The work had originally been expected to be finished by the middle of August in time for the start of the new Premier League season. Following Buckingham’s collapse, the club then targeted next weekend’s Merseyside derby against Everton as the new date for a full opening.
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