SNP delays and dithering on Edinburgh’s trams and airport rail link are costing taxpayers millions of pounds a month, shadow finance secretary Wendy Alexander claimed today.

And she promised Labour would keep up the pressure on the new government to allow the two projects, approved by the previous parliament, to go ahead.

She told the Nationalists: “We will come back week after week until you are forced to recognise the will of parliament, accept the need for these projects and deliver for the nation.”

The SNP election manifesto included a pledge to scrap the projects. And earlier this week Finance Secretary John Swinney announced the Auditor General will review the cost forecasts and report back before the summer recess.

But in a debate in the Scottish Parliament today, Ms Alexander said the delay was costing around 3.5m a month on trams and 1.5m a month on the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link.

And she claimed there was an internal power struggle in the SNP between Alex Salmond and the leadership on one side and public transport specialist and backbencher Chris Harvie “and his allies who dare not speak out in this chamber”.

Edinburgh West Liberal Democrat MSP Margaret Smith insisted the SNP had no mandate to scrap the projects. And she told MSPs: “This is about taking funding away from Edinburgh. Why are trams the right thing for Strasbourg, Dublin, Paris and Manchester but not Scotland’s Capital? Is it because it is not in the North East?”

She also quoted concerns voiced during the last parliament by Auditor General Robert Black about investigating transport projects while they were still ongoing.

He said at the time: “I’m reluctant to get into real time evaluation - we are not resourced to do so and doing so would confuse accountability.”

But the Tories, who had backed a cross-party move to back the trams last week, welcomed the Auditor General’s review.

Tory business manager and Edinburgh Pentlands MSP David McLetchie said: “Labour and the Lib Dems want us to sign a blank cheque for trams and EARL, which is the height of financial irresponsibility on their part. If I am asked whether we are in favour of these projects, I can do no better than echo the words of that great Scottish philosopher Kenny Dalgleish: maybe aye or maybe no. But any decision we make will be better informed by the Auditor General’s report and I think it’s worth a short delay to see what he says.”

Lothians Labour MSP George Foulkes, making his maiden speech at Holyrood, accused the Nationalists of having an anti-Edinburgh agenda and launched an attack on “Kamikaze Kenny”.

He said: “It’s a real pity the Executive has got off to such an anti-Edinburgh agenda on transport, led by Kenny MacAskill, the SNP MSP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh.”

But transport minister Stewart Stevenson insisted it was “normal, natural and necessary” for governments to review projects at key stages, especially when they first took office.

“Who wouldn’t want to make sure they were still getting the benefits they expected at the price they had been promised?” he said.

The cost of the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway had been estimated at 65 million to 70 million - yet SNP ministers were told “within days of taking office” that this had now gone up to 83 million, he said.

“It is precisely to bring the necessary objectivity to these projects that we invited Audit Scotland to look at the projects.”

He said ministers would consider the report swiftly and allow time for a debate in parliament before the summer recess.

Frank Lloyd Wright pushed the limitations of technology with his buildings, sometimes pushing past them and bequeathing problems to future stewards. Fallingwater, the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. residence completed in 1939, required a major restoration in 2002. The house’s dramatic cantilevers had deflected dangerously with the main cantilever sagging an alarming seven inches. The restoration team, including structural engineer Robert Silman Associates (RSA) and architect WASA/Studio A were able to halt, but not correct, the deflection with post-tensioning cables—a solution as innovative as Wright’s design.

RSA and WASA/Studio A—formerly Wank Adams Slavin Associates—have partnered again, along with Integrated Conservation Resources, to repair and restore another Wright icon, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. For two years, the team has undertaken a comprehensive investigation and assessment of the 50-year-old exterior and its infrastructure, focusing on the gunite-covered concrete envelope. An earlier effort completed in 1992, led by Gwathmey Siegel and Associates Architects, had focused on the museum’s interior.

The restoration team removed 11 coats of paint from the exterior, revealing hundreds of surface cracks. With the paint removed, a 17-month monitoring effort began, which measured localized movements of cracks and overall wall movements. Laser modeling and core drilling to gather concrete samples showed that the building remains structurally solid. After extensive laboratory and accelerated weathering testing, mockups of proposed crack fillers and patching materials were monitored through seasonal changes to verify compatibility and performance.

Wright, never one to be shackled by convention, designed the structure without expansion joints in order to create a visually monolithic form. And yet, despite the cracks, the concrete was found to be in remarkably good condition. Credit for this stamina goes to the use of an early version of what is now called elastomeric wall coating—a thick, elastic paint—in its infancy in the 1950s, but its use is a perfect example of Wright’s continuous search for new methods and materials. The restored facade will be coated with a high-performance contemporary elastomeric paint.

The restoration team’s biggest challenge centers on the interior side of the envelope at the top of the rotunda. The wall of the sixth ramp is twice the height of the spiral’s lower ramps and has a different slope. A thorough investigation showed that a difference in geometry meant that the top walls expanded and contracted at different rates. The engineers designed custom steel brackets to reinforce localized discontinuities and applied a carbon-fiber matrix to the interior side of the walls to provide resistance to thermal and wind loads.

In restoring any architectural icon, the goal is preserve the authenticity of craftsmanship and to make sure the intervention doesn’t preclude future restoration. “We strive to make our interventions reversible, but because of the scale of buildings, that is not always possible,” explains Pamela Jerome, AIA, a partner at WASA. “Therefore, if we cannot achieve reversibility, we at least make sure that our interventions do not preclude re-treatment.”

The total budget for the restoration is $29 million. Scaffolding will remain in place through spring 2008. The museum is expected to remain open throughout the restoration process.

Robbie Fowler will return to the ground where he remains revered after Cardiff were dealt a trip to Liverpool in the fourth round of the Carling Cup. The 32-year-old left Liverpool for the second time at the end of last season when he was not offered a new contract by manager Rafael Benнtez, but remains massively popular on the Kop.

He has scored four goals in five starts since joining Cardiff, including a brace in their midweek Carling Cup win over West Brom.

Coventry’s reward for eliminating Manchester United, meanwhile, is home draw against another big-spending Premier League team, West Ham.

There are two all-Premier League ties: Bolton against Manchester City and Portsmouth versus Blackburn.

Tottenham will host Blackpool, while Gary Megson’s Leicester will be away to Chelsea. Everton face a tricky trip to lone League One survivors Luton, while Arsenal’s youngsters will have to overcome Bryan Robson’s Sheffield United.

The matches will be played in the week commencing the October 29.