Sydney light rail: NSW government ‘misleading, deceptive conduct’ with contractor Acciona
TRANSPORT NSW engaged in “misleading or deceptive conduct” when it signed contracts for the troubled Sydney light rail project, the Spanish contractor has alleged in court today.
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TRANSPORT NSW engaged in “misleading or deceptive conduct” when it signed contracts for the troubled Sydney light rail project, the Spanish contractor has alleged in court today.
Acciona is seeking $1.106 billion compensation from the NSW government, for claimed losses arising from extra work it has had to carry out to deal with electricity cables — which it says it was not told about until after contracts were signed.
The infrastructure company says it was sent an email on the night after it had signed contracts — telling them what Ausgrid required for its electricity cables.
“If Acciona had known that Ausgrid did not accept the treatments set out in Schedule F8 and would instead insist on the treatments set out in the Ausgrid guidelines, it would not have entered into the contract,” the claim, lodged in the Supreme Court, states, “…because the Ausgrid guidelines substantially altered the risks and costs of the project for Acciona.”
The $1.2 billion 12km light rail project, from Circular Quay to Kingsford and Randwick, is being built by a public-private partnership.
READ MORE: What you need to know about the Sydney light rail — it’s running late
Financial agreements for building the project were signed on 27 February 2015.
“On the evening of 27 February 2015, and after financial close had occurred, Ausgrid provided to Acciona a draft document dated October 2014 which set out the utility services treatment which Ausgrid required,” the court documents states.
The company argues the guidelines “diverged to a significant degree” from the agreed schedule and would have created “additional costs and risks”.
This included 49 extra relocations in the CBD, seven in Surry Hills and the additional upsizing of pits in 22 cases.
In all, there were 116 Ausgrid utilities for which there were “clear conflicts” and another 927 additional Ausgrid utilities for which the “treatment was unclear”.
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The contractors say they were banned from directly communicating with Ausgrid about its requirements for “utility pits” about how the changes would be dealt with, instead dealing with transport bureaucrats.
“Acciona … were reliant upon TfNSW to ensure that the utility services treatment in relation to Ausgrid was appropriately dealt with.”
In a series of workshops with Transport NSW before signing the agreements, Acciona said it was led to believe that the transport officials had “incorporated all feedback from Ausgrid”, but the schedule it had signed up to “did not incorporate feedback from Ausgrid”.
“By reasons of the matters set out … TfNSW engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct,” the statement of claim says. “If Acciona had known before executing the D & C Contract that Ausgrid did not accept the treatment of utilities as set out … Acciona would not have executive the contract.”
The costs it is claiming from the government include the extra work, plus penalties being imposed for the delays.
Justice David Hammerschlag stood the matter over until May 25 for a hearing.
Opposition Leader Luke Foley has called on Premier Gladys Berejiklian to answer how the project fell apart.
“This is no mere stuff up, this is scandalous,” Mr Foley said.
“It’s the premier’s pet project. We are now facing years of uncertainty, the centre of the city looks like a war zone and there’s just no end in sight.
“The centre of Australia’s largest city resembles a war zone. What is the premier going to do about this?”
Asked what he would do in March next year if he was to win office, Mr Foley replied:
“It’s 11 months away, I’ve always said to you no incoming premier or government can rip up the tracks but we desperately need some advice from the premier of the state today. Having got us into this awful mess, what’s her road map to get us out of it?”