Transport NSW to fine Spanish consortium Acciona $500,000 for every day light rail is delayed

THE Spanish consortium building Sydney’s light rail will be forced to pay at least $500,000 for every day it misses the project’s 2019 opening date.

THE Spanish consortium building Sydney’s light rail will be forced to pay at least $500,000 for every day it misses the project’s 2019 opening date, The Daily Telegraph has been told.

It comes as Transport Minister Andrew Constance yesterday savaged ALTRAC for running more than a year behind schedule on the construction of key sections of the line.

Mr Constance said he expected them to “get on with the job” and meet the April 2019 light rail operation date.

“It’s fair to say (the government) is an unhappy customer at the moment,” he said.

“We expect better.”

NSW Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said the government is not happy. Picture: AAP Image/David Moir

The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed the $2.1 billion light rail project is so far behind schedule that workers would need to lay about 260m of track a day to get construction deadlines back on schedule — a work rate 10 times the current average.

The original schedule documents state that ALTRAC would face “significant penalties” if it spent longer than the allocated time in any zone.

It has also come to light that one of the main design firms on the project has started legal action against Acciona, one of the firms within ALTRAC, for unpaid invoices.

And NewsLocal’s Central Sydney has reported a class-action lawsuit is being considered by up to 100 businesses and residents against Transport NSW amid claims they have been given false promises of support and compensation.

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Construction of the light rail along George St in the city between Market and King streets outside the Dymocks building. Picture: Toby Zerna

Acciona is a Spanish company responsible for design, construction and integration of the 12km route.

“If ALTRAC have issues with a subcontractor they need to deal with them,” Mr Constance said.

“As a customer, this is disappointing for NSW.”

It’s understood ALTRAC can try to renegotiate the contract to push back the completion date beyond the first quarter of 2019. An ALTRAC spokeswoman yesterday refused to confirm whether or not they would have the project open in 2019.

“Civil construction will be progressively completed across the construction zones in 2018. We can be more precise about dates closer to the start of operations,” she said.

“There have been challenges and we’ve been upfront about the fact work in many construction zones is taking longer than we anticipated.

“We always expected this would be a complex job and that protecting and relocating the utilities would be challenging. Despite these challenges we are now ‘out of the ground’ in many areas, laying tracks and paving and starting to construct light rail stops.”

Construction of the light rail is delayed by hundreds of days. Picture: Toby Zerna

In response to the lawsuit the spokeswoman said: “We are in ongoing commercial discussions with our design consultants. There are no other commercial claims from our subcontractors constructing the light rail.”

Opposition Leader Luke Foley slammed the project, saying: “It’s late, well over budget and it delivers a permanent congestion nightmare to the city”.