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Previous ground investigations in recent decades have uncovered a centuries-old sword and buried fragments of King Henry III’s high table.
Room inspections
Surveyors will also inspect 160 rooms across Parliament, lifting up floorboards, drilling into walls and remove ceiling panels. They will look at a range of issues such as wall cavities, the material makeup of the building and the weight-bearing of historic flooring.
Specialist teams will continue to inspect the hundreds of miles of interconnected power cables, gas, water and heating pipes.
Costs
Restoration work is expected to cost between £7bn and £13bn and take between 12 and 20 years if MPs vacate the building while works take place.
In the event that there isn’t a full decant of MPs, work could take up to 76 years and the repair bill could hit £76bn, according to a report by the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Programme released earlier this year.
David Goldstone, CEO of the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority, said: “Our experts are carrying out the most detailed ever surveys of the Palace of Westminster, which will be critical to informing decisions about the essential restoration to preserve our historic Parliament buildings.”
Since January, restoration and renewal programme teams have examined 2,089 spaces across the Palace of Westminster.
Surveys conducted throughout the last Parliamentary recesses included a thermographic study of heat loss from the building, examination of room spaces, and studying conditions just under the surface of the ground to measure tree roots and other obstructions which could impair restoration works.
The first seven winning contractors to handle the survey works are:
The November/December 2025 issue of Construction Management magazine is now available to read in digital format.
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