Sewage Plant Tenders Differ By £126,000

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 16

Sewage Plant Tenders Differ By £126,000

A tender of £135,068 for the last stage of the hew sewage purification works at Bromleyfour artificial lakes with a total area of 600 acres—was let by the Christchurch Drainage Board last evening.

The successful tenderer was the Dunedin firm of Contract Cultivation, Ltd. Its tender was the lowest of eight opened publicly in the board room and was more than £126,000 lower than the highest tender. The artificial lakes will be oxidation ponds and the contract involves the shifting of about 900,000 cubic yards of sand to form them.

Three of the four ponds are required to be completed by November next year. Public Opening The public opening of tenders —a system which is widely adopted, overseas—was tried by the drainage board as an experiment and 30 visitors crowded into the board room to watch proceedings. “Tonight for the first time in the history of the board as 1 kpow it we are trying the opening of tenders publicly and we have both members who feel we should adopt this generally and others who feel the system has disadvantages,” said the board chairman (Mr G. A. G. Connal) when he welcomed the visitors, who represented contractors, subcontractors and other interested parties.

The board secretary (Mr T. A. Tucker) assisted by the engineer (Mr H. F. Page) unlocked the tender box and drew out telegrams, envelopes and packets containing the tenders. They split, ripped or cut them open and handed them to the chairman to read out loud.

One by one they were read out and the sewage treatment plant construction engineer (Mr D. L. Steven) chalked the names and figures on a blackboard. There was suspense until the last price which was met with gasps, whistles and murmurs among both board members and visitors.

The tenderers and their prices, in the order they were opened, were:

H. F. Stewart, £183,830. Wilkins and Davies, £208,542. Burnetts Motors, £187,307. P. Graham and Son, £249,410. M. C. Burke, Ltd., £261,519. Fletcher Construction Co., £214,200. Feast and McJorrow (Masterton), £197,400.

Contract Cultivation, £135,068. At this stage one contractor, Mr P. Graham, rose and said that on behalf of contractors and confreres he would like to congratulate the board “on the forward step it has taken.” “Your board is the first one which has had the courage to adopt it in toto in New Zealand," he said. Mr Connal replied that if the system was found satisfactory it was very likely it would become future procedure “with protections found necessary to introduce from time to time.” The board had been heartened by the interest of the contractors’ association in its public opening of step it has taken. Visitors then, left the room while the board resolved itself into committee to discuss the tenders.

Within a few minutes 22 of the 30 men who had filed out returned to the room and the successful tenderer was named.