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A long-term road-maintenance contract that is the first of its kind in New Zealand came into effect on July 1, 2008.
The contract, for five years with provision for a possible extension, is worth about $45 million a year (but only about $32 million in the first year because footpaths have been excluded, for reasons described merely as “commercial”). While this is the first major network management alliance contract in New Zealand, the model is becoming increasingly common around the world and both Leighton Contractors and MWH have significant experience with alliance delivery in Australasia and the UK. Auckland City Council says it is trialling the collaborative approach to its road maintenance and that the selected area, the western one-third of the city, represents the greatest challenge because of the age and condition of the asset, network management in relation to utility services and developers’ activities, and the 2011 Rugby World Cup. “By only selecting one-third of the city isthmus the council will be in a position to benchmark and compare alliance outcomes with the remaining two-thirds to be maintained using the traditional contract models,” the local authority says. The city council held a western roads pre-tender briefing in August last year when nearly 100 representatives from construction and professional service organisations attended, plus officials from Land Transport New Zealand. The briefing was well received and resulted in four tenders, from:
The bids ranged from Leighton’s $29.3 million up to $33.9 million, and the scores from 74.91 up to Leighton’s 81.22 percent. The western roads maintenance contract covers the area west of Grafton Gully and Dominion Road and also takes in the central business district. Its scope of work includes general maintenance of all transport assets except signals and street lights; carriageway pavement resurfacing and renewals; specialist surface treatment; footpath and vehicle-crossing renewals (from July 2009 onwards); cycleway resurfacing and renewals; pavement marking; structural, drainage and signage renewals; minor safety capital works; and, provisionally, the supply of capital works for the Rugby World Cup with respect to transport assets. Leighton Contractors is a participant in the Northern Gateway Alliance, which is building the Alpurt B2 road north of Auckland. It is a publicly listed Australian contracting company delivering projects to governments, major corporations and other clients across Australia. Leighton is Australia’s leading contractor with alliance experience, having undertaken more than $700 million worth of such contracts. It has more than 5000 employees and an annual turnover of $A4.6 billion. Its recent Australian projects include the Brisbane inner-city bypass, the Sydney eastern distributor project, and the Port of Brisbane motorway. Blacktop Construction is a family-owned company with more than 30 years’ experience in roading contruction. It employs more than 130 staff in Auckland, Hamilton and Timaru and won the 2006 Roading New Zealand Goughs regional supreme award for its State Highway 1 Newmarket Viaduct resurfacing. Blacktop’s range of services includes chipsealing, hotmix laying, slurry sealing/micro surfacing, basecourse construction, pavement stabilisation, milling, and hotmix and emulsion manufacture. MWH is an engineering, environmental, technology and management consultancy which operates in more than 35 countries and has more than 7000 staff, 700 of whom work in New Zealand. An experienced alliance participant internationally, MWH says alliance working involves a “mind shift” because all parties share the risks and rewards as opposed to the traditional models of working in competition or service delivery involving client, consultant and contractor. The core alliance team on the Auckland western roads maintenance project consists of 24 people from the three consortium companies and the city council. MWH says that to bring everyone together into one team, where risks are shared and return depends on performance, involves “a major cultural change”. “That said, an alliance is an incredible chance for staff development and innovation, as the normal barriers to exchange of ideas and development are removed. Alliance working fosters a no-blame culture open to challenge and innovation. The opportunities and technical challenges are huge.” MWH says the Auckland western roads maintenance alliance is already influencing how network management is being considered, with a number of New Zealand and Australian local authorities closely monitoring its success.
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An alliance of Leighton Contractors, Blacktop Construction and consultancy MWH is managing Auckland City Council’s ground-breaking western roads maintenance programme.