Better late than....?

Press, 7 May 1980, Page 7

Better late than....?

PA Wellington The Bank of New Zealand wants its 31-storey headquarters building in Wellington completed in two .years/. 10 years after construction started and five years beyond the initially contracted finishing date. The chairman of the bank’s board of directors (Mr L. N. Ross) said from Auckland yesterday that completion of the building within that period “would be acceptable.” The project was “close to 50 per cent completed.” This has taken the main contractors, Civil and Civic Pty, Ltd, almost eight years to achieve. Construction had virtually stopped again yesterday. Civil and Civic’s Sydney-based New Zealand manager (Mr W. White) said this was be-

cause of “contractual and technical difficulties which have yet to be resolved.” The company believed that it would not be responsible, nor in the best interests of the project, for Civil and Civic to make available to the news media details of the differences which existed between the contracting parties. The “contractual difficulties” exist between Civil and Civic and the bank’s nominated steelerection subcontractor, Multicon Engineering, Ltd. The “technical difficulties” relate to soihe of the steel beams in the building’s standing steel skeleton which are believed to be' fractionally out of plumb. It is believed that in the “technical” area, 11m steel beams each weighing be-.

tween 3 and 4 tonnes, supplied for erection by Civil and Civic, in some instances were fabricated outside permitted tolerances. j The steel was initially fabricated by a former s t e e 1-erection subcontractor, Fletcher BernardSmith, in Auckland. Subsequently a second company, Price Norsteel, has been associated with the steel supply for the project. Steel brought on to the site for erection was expected to be fabricated to exact specifications. Before erection, tests are believed to have shown that the beams in some cases were out of plumb by fractions of a centimetre. The “contractual differences” are believed to be related to the question of responsibility.