BAM, Bilfinger and Strabag subsidiary Ed. Züblin have agreed to pay €200m each to the City of Cologne to settle liabilities arising from the fatal collapse of the city’s municipal archive building in March 2009.

The building, which housed records going back to the Middle Ages, disintegrated while a joint venture of the three companies (BAM was represented by its subsidiary Wayss & Freytag Ingenieurbau) were working on a section of a metro line underneath.

Two people in adjacent residential buildings died in the collapse, which is estimated to have cost the city €1.1bn.

The judge hearing the case said that the collapse was caused by a faulty slurry wall in the metro line works, but arguments over the liabilities of the construction JV dragged on.

Cologne City Council approved the €600m out-of-court settlement on Monday, 29 June.

It commits the JV members to complete the underground works at their expense and make a space for a future memorial.

Source: Global construction review