Transit New Zealand
Wellington Regional Office

MEDIA RELEASE

14 May 2007

Two More Contracts to Investigate Transmission Gully

Transit New Zealand has awarded two further contracts for Stage 1 of the investigation and preliminary design phase for the proposed Transmission Gully Motorway.

Transit Wellington Regional Manager Graham Taylor said the preliminary geotechnical assessment contract has been awarded to Opus International Consultants for $2,434,752.

“The work will involve drilling and other geotechnical testing. This will provide a preliminary assessment of soil suitability for future construction work and other important information for better understanding the terrain in the area,” he said.

Opus will be carrying out this initial geotechnical work , in association with Golder Associates and Geological and Nuclear Sciences, with local firm Webster Drilling carrying out the on-site drilling work. Work is expected to be completed later this year.

Mr Taylor said Opus has successfully completed similar geotechnical investigations on a number of large and challenging geotechnical and infrastructure projects, both locally and overseas.

Another Stage 1 contract, the cost risk and value engineering assessment has been awarded to a second team from Opus International Consultants for $515,000. Opus won the contract against stiff competition from four other experienced civil project cost estimating and risk consultants, including one firm from Australia.

Mr Taylor said the early phase of this work, also expected to be completed later this year, would investigate and enhance Transit’s understanding of the risks and critical cost elements of delivering the proposed motorway.

He said the successful tender prices for both contracts were below Transit’s estimates.

“The two contracts are key components of Stage 1 of the investigation and preliminary design phase of the proposed Transmission Gully Motorway project and will enable decisions to be made about the most appropriate engineering solutions, the best overall transportation proposal, and ensure value-for-money is realised for the proposed motorway,” he said.

“By improving our understanding of the risks and opportunities that exist, and ensuring that cost estimating processes are sound, Transit will be able to provide a better estimate of the cost to build the proposed motorway.”

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BACKGROUNDER

- Four contracts out of five have been awarded for the Transmission Gully Stage 1 investigation and preliminary design work. Transit expects to let the remaining contract, for developing the project scheme assessment, early in June.

- MWH New Zealand is presently working on the road safety audit and this work will continue in tandem with the scheme assessment.

- Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) is currently undertaking traffic modelling which will see the validated traffic model completed in July 2007, with detailed option testing to follow as the scheme assessment is developed.

- The timeframes for the Transmission Gully Motorway project are consistent with those for similar overseas road projects such as Melbourne’s A$3.8 billion EastLink 45-km project.

- The size and complexity of the investigations and planning required for the Transmission Gully Motorway project calls for much detailed and thorough work to be carried out – something that cannot be competently completed in a short period of time.

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