CALLING OF TENDERS FOR COOK STRAIT CABLE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29479, 4 April 1961, Page 14

CALLING OF TENDERS FOR COOK STRAIT CABLE

"The Press" Special Service

WELLINGTON, April 3. World-wide tenders for the supply and installation of some 76.5 miles of submarine cables for the £lB.B million Cook Strait cable project should be called this week. Advertisements will be placed in newspapers in New Zealand and abroad Bids for a contract worth about £3 million will close at the end of June. The cables—there will be three of them—will be some time in the making and will not be laid until 1964. Most cable factories are now very busy and once a contract is made, the New Zealand order will have to be fitted into production programmes.

The general manager of the New Zealand Electricity Department (Mr A. E. Davenport) said that specifications would not be restrictive.

Each manufacturer would be free to put forward his own version.

It is understood that the specifications provide for a more heavily-armoured cable than originally contemplated to counter any possible seabed damage. Tenders for the supply of pylons for the overland transmission lines at either end of the cable will close on July 18. A'short list of likely suppliers of special electrical conversion gear has already been prepared from the names of the very few firms making such equipment and interested in bidding. Tenders for this section of the work will also close about the end of June.

The chief engineer of the Electricity Department (Mr M. G. Latta), who will leave for Britain and Europe to discuss technical details with interested parties, will return in time for the opening of tenders.