The cost of creating a nuclear submarine support facility at a Royal Navy base could be £145 million more than the initial estimate, a High Court judge has said.
Experts originally quoted an £89 million target figure for the facility at the Faslane base in Argyll and Bute, said Mr Justice Coulson.
The current "agreed maximum price" was around £140 million, said the judge. But engineers thought that the "ultimate cost" could be as much as £235.7 million.
Details emerged after lawyers debated terms of a contract, drawn up when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) engaged engineering firm Amec in 2000, at the High Court in London.
Mr Justice Coulson said the MoD and Amec could not agree on who should foot the "extensive overrun" bill.
