The NZ Transport Agency has today taken another step towards building Transmission Gully by announcing the two consortiums shortlisted to deliver the project.
Transmission Gully will provide a quicker, safer and more reliable route between the northern Wellington region, the Kapiti Coast and our capital city, bypassing many existing bottle necks and more hazardous stretches of State Highway 1.
The 27-km highway, which is a key part of the Wellington Northern Corridor Road of National Significance, will be an important connector for freight travelling between Wellington’s ports and the lower and central North Island. It will also give Wellington’s growing population a safer, less congested route for commuting between the northern Wellington region, the Kapiti Coast, and the capital city.
The two consortiums which have been selected to proceed to the next stage of the tendering process for the Transmission Gully project are made up of New Zealand-based and international organisations. Each consortium is made up of a construction firm working in partnership with road designers, investors and companies able to maintain and operate the road.
The following consortiums have been selected to proceed to the next stage of the tendering process:
Wellington Gateway Partnership
Positive Connection
NZTA Chief Executive Geoff Dangerfield said that announcing the shortlisted consortiums brought the agency one step closer towards delivering Transmission Gully.
“I’m confident that either of these consortiums could deliver a high quality road which will help people and freight move through the region quickly and safely, as well as offering a resilient, alternative access route into Wellington in the event of a disruption, said Mr Dangerfield.
He added that the announcement of the shortlisted consortium follows a rigorous evaluation and selection process.
“We are very fortunate to have such high quality companies and organisations showing an interest in Transmission Gully. All of these companies have sound experience in delivering large infrastructure projects.”
In May, a request for proposal (RFP) will be issued to the two shortlisted consortiums, and NZTA is working towards announcing the successful bidder in early 2014.
The NZTA is proposing to use an availability and performance-based public private partnership (PPP) contract for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Transmission Gully highway. This is what the two shortlisted consortiums will bid on.
Mr Dangerfield said a key requirement for either consortium to be successful would be to demonstrate that their proposal would provide better value for money over the life of the road than could be achieved using traditional procurement models.
“PPPs can allow large, complex infrastructure projects to be built – and the benefits realised – in a shorter timeframe than is possible under traditional procurement methods, which require that funding be in place prior to construction beginning.
“Transmission Gully will provide a vital transport lifeline for the lower North Island, and it will be built. But the bottom line here is value for money, and the successful bidder will have to demonstrate clearly that New Zealand motorists and taxpayers will be better off than if the road were to be built with a traditional procurement and funding model.”
Under a PPP contract model, the successful bidder would put up the capital to design and construct the highway, and would then operate the publicly-owned road over a 25-year period. The consortium would recover the initial construction costs and ongoing financing and maintenance costs through regular, fixed payments from the NZTA.
Under the terms of the PPP contract, the successful consortium would only be paid when the road is open to traffic and specified performance levels have been met. Payments would be linked to the road’s performance, not to the volume of traffic using the road.
