Acciona wouldn’t have signed on to build light rail in Sydney had it seen a document detailing the extent of underground work required, the company’s Australian managing director has said.
Acciona Australia managing director Bede Noonan testified before a parliamentary inquiry into the Sydney CBD and South East Light Rail project on November 29.
The Spanish-owned firm is currently engaged in legal action over roughly $1 billion it believes it is owed over the construction, which it says involves far more underground electrical work than was detailed before contracts were signed.
Noonan said the ALTRAC consortium was not shown the guidelines from underground electrical manager Ausgrid, before the final contract was signed between the State Government and the delivery consortium.
“Transport for NSW had an extremely important document called the Ausgrid guidelines in early February 2015, some weeks ahead of final contract signing,” Noonan told the inquiry.
“Transport for NSW did not provide those Ausgrid guidelines to our consortium until 27 February, which was after final contract signing.
“Had those Ausgrid guidelines been provided to our consortium in early February, then we would not have signed the contracts and this project would not have proceeded in the manner it has.”
Noonan said Acciona’s team estimated the work commanded by the Ausgrid guidelines added 865 days and $426 million of work to the construction project.
“Our organisation spent over $10 million to tender for this project,” he said.
“At least half of our time and money was spent understanding the scope of work and risks of dealing with utilities. Ausgrid’s utilities were by a long margin the most significant.
“Receiving these Ausgrid guidelines after contract signing was like Transport for NSW dropping a bomb on us.
“Our head of utilities who attended all of the pre-contract workshops to develop the treatment plans wrote in an email in March 2015 that the guidelines are a ‘crap-the-pants document’.”
Noonan also told the inquiry there was “a risk” the light rail line won’t be ready by May 2020, currently the official completion date after being delayed from the initial date of early 2019.
He accused Ausgrid of contributing to the delays.
“The biggest issue from a construction perspective that the project now faces is still Anzac Parade,” Noonan detailed.
“We have uncontestable work that can only be performed by Ausgrid. They have to bring down the overhead powerlines so that we can safely drill the foundations for the new poles for the light rail network…
“Even as late as two nights ago there was an occupation plan by Ausgrid that was supposed to conclude the undergrounding of that section of overhead wires. Unfortunately, after waiting three months for that night to occur … Ausgrid came, they had the incorrect paperwork and they left without doing anything.”