Stadium contractor voices frustration

A main roof truss is hoisted into place at Forsyth Barr Stadium, in Dunedin, yesterday. Photo by...
A main roof truss is hoisted into place at Forsyth Barr Stadium, in Dunedin, yesterday. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
The Dunedin companies that completed a concreting contract for the Forsyth Barr Stadium, then missed out on a carpentry contract, say their experience with the project was not profitable.

And the joint venture of Lund South and Amalgamated Builders Ltd (ABL) said Auckland company Wallace Construction, which received the carpentry tender, paid lower wages, and its use of contract labour meant no security for workers, with a resulting cost to the community.

But the head of Wallace Construction, Bruce Wallace, responded yesterday that that was not the case, and pointed to 30 years in the industry working with "the big three" of Hawkins Construction, Mainzeal and Fletcher Construction.

He said his company had 150 contractors, permanent employees and apprentices, and was "extremely qualified and highly regarded".

Lund owner Russell Lund has, in the past, supported the Carisbrook Stadium Trust's guaranteed maximum price contract for the stadium.

But he has since been critical of the carpentry contract, although he maintained yesterday he was not criticising Wallace Construction.

The carpentry contract hit the headlines after it emerged contracts were significantly over budget, and eventually went to the Auckland company.

Trust chairman Malcolm Farry said last week while the contracts were yet to be finally signed off, it was expected there would be four subcontractors doing the work - three local companies and Wallace Construction.

Mr Farry said yesterday it would not be appropriate to comment on Mr Lund's claims.

Speaking for the joint venture, Mr Lund said Wallace Construction's successful tender was $800,000 less than the price submitted by the joint venture.

"We were shocked to be beaten by this amount, and have made inquiries as to how this could be so."

Those inquiries showed Wallace Construction paid workers "considerably less" than the joint venture would have, and lay-offs "may now be unavoidable".

Mr Lund said the joint venture could have completed the carpentry contract on time and within its tendered sum.

"We will all have to wait until the work is complete, and all the adjustments to the price made, to know with certainty if the contractors carrying out the work can make that same statement."

Mr Wallace said he was not aware of the price difference between the two tenders, but tenders had "a myriad of tags" that could affect the price.

He said the joint venture missed out on the contract because it "overestimated the requirement for management".

He was "extremely confident" the price he tendered was sufficient to do what was required for main contractor Hawkins Construction and the trust.

He said his company would probably pick up any workers laid off.

On the concreting contract, Mr Lund said the joint venture priced the work "as per the documents".

"We found that that, in reality, far more supervision and other items were needed due to the huge pressure to perform, which we did.

For example, the agreed number of men on site was to be 34 to 36 men for the duration of the work but, within five or six weeks of starting, the joint venture had 60 men on site for most of the job.

"This required far more supervision, and the many changes to the design also consumed far more project management time than expected."

Mr Lund said despite it not being part of the contract's scope, the joint venture had to supervise in detail the reinforcing subcontractor because work could not progress until that work was completed.

In a statement also sent to Hawkins Construction, he said a lack of resources on-site by that subcontractor meant further pressure to perform and "big hours" being worked at overtime rates and reduced productivity.

"It is accurate to say that the concrete work to the stadium to date has not been a profitable experience for the Lund/ABL joint venture. This is especially galling given the huge effort by the ABL/Lund staff, who deserve the highest respect for their efforts.

"We could see exactly the same issues looming on the carpentry, with the six-month delay in awarding the package due to budget, and we were not going to be caught twice."

david.loughrey@odt.co.nz

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