The opening of Transmission Gully is less than three months away, with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency saying the Wellington Gateway Partnership has confirmed it will meet the contracted opening date of 27 September 2021.
Wellington Gateway Partnership is contracted to build, operate and maintain the Transmission Gully motorway. Together with its design and build subcontractor, the CPB HEB Joint Venture, the WGP is said it remains confident it will meet its contractual commitments and open the road on time.
Waka Kotahi general manager transport services Brett Gliddon said in spite of the short window of time remaining to carry out a significant amount of work needed to open the road and meet the strict safety and quality standards required by the project agreement, WGP and the CPB HEB Joint Venture continue to confirm that they can meet the opening date.
“We know that they are pushing hard to achieve opening by the agreed date, including bringing in additional resources from across the construction sector, and we’re also aware of the high public expectations for the road to be opened as soon as possible,” he said.
“There is now a critical 11 weeks ahead for the contractor and the builder, with a lot of work still to do in a relatively short space of time, in challenging winter conditions,” Gliddon said.
“That combination of factors means there continues to be a risk around achieving the agreed opening date.”
Under the terms of the September 2020 settlement agreement for the project, if the road is not open by 27 September 2021, the builder will be liable for damages of more than $250,000 per day.
The agreement also stipulates that the final $7.5m of a $145.5m settlement for the CPB HEB Joint Venture to cover the costs of delays and other impacts resulting from the five-week Covid-19 shutdown will only be paid if the road opens by 27 September 2021.
Gliddon said as well as finishing the physical works, there are also other critical requirements that need to be met by the contractor and the builder before the motorway can legally be opened for public use. This includes safety and asset quality assurance work, and compliance with environmental consent conditions.
“Before Transmission Gully can be opened to the public, the contract for the project requires a range of safety and quality conditions to be met, with approvals to be issued by WGP and their maintenance contractor Ventia,” he said.
“WGP and the CPB HEB Joint Venture will also need to demonstrate that they have met a range of specified conditions for road construction, which will require sign off from Greater Wellington Regional Council as the environmental regulator before the necessary consents can be issued to allow the motorway to legally open.
“We have met with GW to discuss their critical role in the sign off process. They have assured us that they can respond as required and achieve the necessary sign offs to permit the road opening.”
Gliddon added that the responsibility for meeting all of the safety, quality and environmental conditions, and the final decision on when the road can open, ultimately rests with WGP as the project contractor, and GW as the consenting authority.
