Sydney light rail contractor told to pay for art wrecked on pavement
A FRESH financial stoush has erupted at the heart of Sydney’s troubled light rail project, the bumbling Spanish contractors destroying a piece of public art and racking up a new bill of up to $500,000.
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A FRESH financial stoush has erupted at the heart of Sydney’s troubled light rail project, the bumbling Spanish contractors destroying a niche piece of public art and racking up a new bill of up to $500,000.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal the City of Sydney Council is demanding the State Government find the money to pay for a pricey bronze pavement art installation that has been ripped up by the Spanish subcontractors Acciona as they took an unplanned route outside the work site to install utilities.
The state government is demanding Acciona pay for their own mistake but a spokesman for the consortium running the light rail project, ALTRAC, said simply it was “investigating the concerns”.
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It’s the latest twist in the project delayed by 14 months, with Acciona taking the government to court to try to squeeze an extra $1.1 billion out of them for the $2.1 billion project.
It is understood all parties had agreed on the site near Thomas St for an underground utility box. However, the route Acciona took to dig towards the site was not agreed upon.
One source said the City of Sydney was furious that the bronze installation – installed with great fanfare in 2016 by artist Lindy Lee — had been broken into pieces when it could have been cautiously removed and then replaced.
A spokeswoman for the City of Sydney confirmed the damage, saying: “The City of Sydney’s Cloud Gate artwork on Thomas St in Chinatown was damaged by Acciona during light rail construction.”
The spokeswoman said the City has written to Transport for NSW “to advise that we intend to restore the artwork and require TfNSW to provide the funding. The city understands TfNSW will seek compensation from Acciona.”
However the ALTRAC spokeswoman said the artwork was “removed” and “relocated” to a City of Sydney storage location “at council’s direction”.
This was not agreed upon before Acciona dug the art up.
Transport Minister Andrew Constance said Acciona would have to pay for the art work.
“This is not good enough by Acciona and they are going to need to foot the bill,” he said.
“I expect them to work with the Council and repair or replace the artwork as soon as possible.
“I don’t want to see months of arguments on their behalf, just get in and fix it.”
The area featured bronze pieces of art embedded in the pavement at the intersection of Hay and Thomas streets.
It has been patched over by bitumen.