Ōpōtiki announces successful applicants for harbour design and construction

Following an extraordinary meeting of Opotiki District Council earlier this week, the Mayor announced the final two successful applicants who will be entering the competitive design and construction phase for the Ōpōtiki Harbour.

Groupings headed by Brian Perry Civil and HEB Construction have been invited to continue to the next stage of the process before a final design and construction contract could be signed with the successful party in 2017.

John Galbraith, Project Manager for the Ōpōtiki Harbour Transformation Project, explained the process and the steps the applicants have worked through to get to this point.

“It is a robust process that moves from Statements of Interest and Ability into this competitive process where the two construction and design companies submit their best design and build plans. At the end of the process, the best option from the two applicants will be chosen and work can proceed when all the final hurdles are cleared.

“We had a lot of interest from across the industry and we had many very high calibre applications. It is a credit to the two successful partnerships to get to this point,” Mr Galbraith said.

The decision of the Council was endorsed by the Harbour Project Board, the partnership of Ōpōtiki District Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Whakatōhea and central government agencies that provides oversight of the Project.

Ōpōtiki Mayor, John Forbes, said that all the different agencies had worked together to ensure they found the right applicants to take this next important step for the Ōpōtiki community.

“The evaluation criteria were very thorough and we were up front with the applicants during the early stages of the SIA, that an important criteria for selecting our shortlist candidates was their ability to deliver on the wider value the harbour project will bring to the local community and in particular the opportunities for creating work, and work training schemes during its construction. It is about translating the work into jobs and opportunities for local people. Both of the shortlist parties provided strong evidence and commitment in that regard,” Mr Forbes said.

A collaborative process will take place over the next few months. Tenderers will then be asked to submit their best design and cost for evaluation. A final decision on the tenderer for the harbour construction will be made some time in the first half of next year.

The design, construction plan and associated costings that will come out of this process are a key part of the Better Business Case to go to central Government next year for consideration.

ENDS

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