CONTRACT LIABILITY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 29, 3 August 1923, Page 8

CONTRACT LIABILITY

YEAR'S MAINTENANCE.

The English Electric Company, electrical contractors for the electrified section "of the South Island Midland Kailway (Arthur's Pass to Otira), are bound, by the terms of their contract, to maintain the section in satisfactory running order for twelve months. During that

time the train-crews and certain other sections of the personnel will be supplied by the-Department of Railways, but the electrified section will be operated under the Public Works Department until the installation and service can be handed over to the Department of Railways. Thus, the electrical contractors are'responsible to the Public Works Department for performance of their contract (including twelve months' electrical maintenance), and the Public Works Department is responsible to the Department of Railways for the completed railway section.

It is not to be supposed, therefore, that the official opening, marking .the inception of a traffic service under the Public Works Department, also marks the completion of the contractors' work. Climatic conditions, including extreme .wetness, make an electrical installation difficult. Tests will continue, and various things may have to be done before the Government finally inspects and certifies the /completion of the contract. It is usual, when railway works are nearing completion, that there should be a transition period, short or long, when, the constructing authority (the Public Works Department) remains in charge . and . also acts temporarily as a traffic authority. The Tauranga-Matata section (38 miles), the Haurau to Portland section (31 miles, in North Auckland), Gisborne-southward, portion's of the Sfcratford-Main Trunk, Kaikohe, and other sections have been in this position for some time, in some cases for years. So the. experience of the Public Works Department as a temporary traffic authority, during the final constructional changes, is very wide. An electrified railway will represent a new application of the same principle.