Auckland’s Watercare has selected Ghella-Abergeldie Harker Joint Venture as its preferred bidder for the construction of the 13km long, 4.5m diameter Central Interceptor wastewater tunnel between Western Springs to a new pump station at the Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The project will be Auckland’s largest wastewater tunnel and the biggest wastewater project ever undertaken in New Zealand.
Ghella-Abergeldie Harker Joint Venture is one of four contractors that tendered for the project. The other three are: CPB Contractors; Pacific Networks (comprising McConnell Dowell, Fletcher Construction and Obayashi); and VINCI Joint Venture (comprising VINCI Construction Grands Projets, HEB Construction and Soletanche Bachy).
Watercare chief executive Raveen Jaduram says the Central Interceptor is a big step forward for Auckland: “This project will improve the health of our city’s waterways by reducing wet-weather overflows and provide for population growth. Not only that, its construction will create employment and opportunities for the city.”
The contractors submitted their tenders in mid-September and over the past two months, the Central Interceptor team has been rigorously reviewing their bids while adhering to water-tight security and confidentiality measures.
Jaduram says that on 27 November, the company’s Board of Directors approved the Central Interceptor team’s request to move forward with Ghella-Abergeldie Harker Joint Venture because it represents the best overall value for Auckland.
“Over the next two months, we will continue our due diligence, working with the joint venture on a range of conditions and issues relating to their bid.
“If the conditions and issues can be successfully worked through, the Central Interceptor team will take a recommendation to our Board of Directors in the first quarter of 2019.
“If the conditions and issues cannot be successfully worked through, then we will start liaising with the second bidder – who cannot be named at this stage.”
Watercare has run a thorough procurement process that involved prequalifying the contractors through the expression of interest stage and interacting with them during the request for proposal stage.
“Often when a company undertakes a project of this size, they tender for design and build. By contrast, we have already completed the detailed design. This means all four contractors have a very clear understanding of our project and as a result, there is better pricing and less risk for both Watercare and the contractors.”
Francesco Saibene, New Zealand representative for Ghella, says both joint venture partners are delighted to have the opportunity to further progress their tender: “The team at Watercare are running a professional and robust procurement process which makes us confident that, should we be successful, we will be able to work collaboratively together to deliver an outstanding result for Auckland and its people.”
The Central Interceptor will address wet-weather overflows by collecting the wastewater and stormwater from these overflow points and transporting it to Māngere for treatment.
“It’s expected to reduce the volume of overflows by at least 80 per cent,” Jaduram says. “It also provides time for Auckland Council to install stormwater pipes in areas where there are none.”
The project has been on Watercare’s agenda for many years, and its funding is already catered for in the company’s pricing plan.
“The Central Interceptor is part of the $5.8 billion we will be spending on upgrading and expanding our infrastructure over the next decade.”
Construction will begin next year and continue until 2025.
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