‘Over a barrel’: NSW Premier Chris Minns’ call after Sydney M6 motorway contractor pulls out

One state’s $3.1bn motorway project will be halted by next month after the contractor behind the plan pulled out - with the Premier now weighing in on the debacle.

Work on a multibillion-dollar Sydney motorway will be halted by the end of June after the contractor said it was walking away from the troubled project.

CGU, which comprises CPB Contractors, Ghella, and UGL, announced on Tuesday morning it would demobilise from work on stage 1 of the M6 motorway project.

The $3.1bn first stage of the project involved the tunnelling on twin 4km tunnels, linking the M8 motorway at Arncliffe to President Ave at Korgorah, in Sydney’s south.

The project was supposed to provide the city’s south with a “missing link” to the wider motorway network, but has been marred by challenging conditions on the ground.

CGU were approached about reports they had decided to walk away from the project, but declined to comment.

A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said CGU was still “responsible for the design and safe delivery” of the M6 tunnels and cavern.

“Transport continues to work with the contractor to identify a technical solution to the issues encountered on the project,” the spokesperson said.

The M6 motorway project has been plagued by issues. Picture: TfNSW

“This is the contractor’s responsibility, but Transport has been proactively seeking to support them in fulfilling their obligations for the past 12 months.

“The contractor has not demonstrated that it has exhausted the technical options to move forward on their stalled underground works.

“It is unfortunate CGU now appears to have determined it is in their commercial interest to down tools instead.”
The spokesperson said TfNSW was considering its “position in relation to the contract given the unilateral steps taken by CGU”.

Speaking of the news, NSW Premier Chris Minns said his “best advice” to the contractor was to “send the lawyers home and bring back the engineers”.

“We need to get a solution to this,” Mr Minns said.

“The contractor took both a design and construct contract from the previous government, meaning they were responsible for the design of it.

“And, they were responsible for the building the thing and we expect them to do it.”

Mr Minns said if a “contractor comes on and signs (an agreement) with the government, we expect it to be completed”.

NSW Premier Chris Minns did not rule out finding another contractor. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

“Everything’s on the table from our perspective,” he said.

“We don’t want this to go to court, but I’m not gonna be in a situation where we rule out working with a different contractor to finish the project.

“Ultimately we can’t be put over a barrel and I’m not going to allow NSW taxpayers to be put a barrel over for these big projects given I’ve got more than just the M6 on the boil at the moment. What kind of message would that send?”

Mr Minns said there may be delays in the delivery of the project as a result, stating: “I can’t promise that the original timetable will be met as a result of these delays”.

“I’m not taking anything off the table,” he said.

“If there’s other contractors that need to step in to complete the project, that may well be what we need to do.

“But, I am not going to get a big blank cheque and give it to a contractor.”