Tender details next week

The Dunedin City Council expects to name within days the company that will build the next stage of the Tahuna wastewater treatment plant, but is denying the project has slipped further behind schedule.

Council solid waste team leader Iain Satterthwaite said final details of the contract to build the $75.8 million stage two were still being "hammered out", but more details were likely to be released next week.

However, he denied the announcement sometime in early November meant the project had slipped further behind schedule.

In July, Tahuna project manager Brian Turner told the Otago Daily Times the stage two upgrade had slipped "a couple of months" behind schedule, while costs had risen by $2.2 million.

At that stage, Mr Turner said an announcement on a successful tenderer was expected by the end of September.

On September 22, he told the ODT tender details were expected to be confirmed by early October, and that a construction deadline of September 1 next year - needed for Otago Regional Council consent purposes - was "going to be tight".

Mr Turner was subsequently instructed by senior council managers not to speak to media about the project.

Questions would instead be answered by members of the council's Tahuna project delivery team.

However, Mr Satterthwaite - a member of the project delivery team - would not elaborate yesterday when asked why the latest delay announcing tender details did not amount to a further delay for the project.

"I'll be able to tell you more next week, but it certainly doesn't mean that [a further delay] at all.

"That was the project manager's programme. Contractors come up with different programmes," he said.

The council's tender included a proposed construction programme, but contractors were free to put forward alternatives to meet required deadlines, he said.

"We have had discussions with the contractor and I really don't want to come up with any detail at the moment, until we've got everything signed, sealed and delivered."

 

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