WELLINGTON STATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22100, 2 November 1933, Page 10

WELLINGTON STATION

ACCEPTANCE OF TENDER REPORTED FLETCHER CONSTRUCTION COMPANY (Per United Press association.) WELLINGTON, November 1. . Cabinet met specially last evening to consider tenders for the construction of the new Wellington railway station, and it was decided to accept the tender of the Fletcher Construction Company, the lowest tenderers. The price is stated to be in the vicinity of £300,000, but owing to the absence from town this afternoon of the chairman of the Government Railways Board (Mr H. H. Sterling) it was not possible to ascertain the amount officially. The Prime Minister (Mr 6. W. Forbes) said that any statement would have to come from Mr Sterling. A PREMATURE REPORT DETAILS YET TO BE SETTLED (From oob Parliamentary Reporter.i WELLINGTON, November 1. A premature and unofficial announcement was made in a Wellington evening paper to-day that the tender of the Fletcher Construction Company had been accepted for the erection of the new Wellington railway station. It was stated that the company was the lowest tenderer and that the contract price was about £300,000. The Prime Minister (Mr Forbes), to whom the matter was referred to-night, said that any statement would have to come from the chairman of the Railways Board, Mr Sterling. In an interview to-night Mr Sterling said that up to the present no tender had been accepted. Certain details had yet to be brought to finality. These matters were in hand, he said, and would be completed as soon as possible. An announcement would be made immediately that was done.

It was announced by the Government in June of this year, simultaneously with the decision concerning the erection of the Dunedin Post Office, that the provision of new railway facilities in Wellington had been authorised, and that the work would shortly be put in hand. In making the announcement Mr Coates said that before a final decision was reached action had been taken to reduce the cost to the lowest possible figure. A thorough overhaul of the original plans had been made and various modifications had been decided upon by which the estimated cost had been reduced from £483,000 originally planned to £350,000. After making allowance for the contribution which was being made by the Unemployment Board it had been found possible to finance the balance over a four-year period. A programme of work over that period was accordingly being arranged and the necessary alterations to the original plans were now in hand. It was intended to let the work by contract and it was expected that tenders would be called early in September next, closing towards the end of October. The work would be commenced very soon after that, and in the meantime the department would carry out the work of clearing the site for building. The Minister went on to say that the necessity for a new station building in Wellington was well known, and it had for long been realised that a permanent scheme for putting the railway facilities in Wellington on a satisfactory footing involved more than the erection of a new station building. This had led to the formulation of a scheme fop the complete rearrangement of the terminal facilities, and this was included in the programme of railway improvements originally drawn up. Coupled with a rearrangement of the terminal facilities was a new railway outlet from the city by a deviation which would join up with the existing line near Tawa Flat. The commencement of the scheme was made with the reclamation in Wellington and the driving of tunnels on f the deviation. This reclamation had been completed, the new goods shed had been erected and brought into use, and the tunnels and formation work on the deviation were in process of completion Mr Coates added: “The Unemployment Board is 1 anxious that building work should be stimulated, and has agreed that the principle of the No. 10 scheme shall apply. .It is estimated that the undertaking will provide work for between 300 and 400 men over a four-year period, and that a large proportion of these men will be artisans who will be employed at their normal trades. The undertaking will therefore have much more merit from every point of view than some of the works which have had to be undertaken as a charge against the Unemployment Fund in order to procure work for unemployed men.”