Six interested in harbor project

Commencement of the Avatiu harbor development project took a step closer with the arrival in Rarotonga of the six engineering companies that had won the right to submit a tender.
The Port Authority’s principal contractors for the Avatiu Harbour development project, Beca International Ltd of Auckland New Zealand, announced on Tuesday morning that six overseas firms had pre-qualified for a pre-bid meeting on the project.
Project Director John Youdale of Beca told the Herald seven firms had actually pre-qualified but one had withdrawn. The highly technical project documents had been issued a week ago and companies will have until early September to submit their bids.
Each company would meet with Youdale and Ports Authority CEO Bim Tou then the companies would conduct a site visit of the Avatiu wharf precinct and the proposed storage site for the dredged materials.
Also here is Lucy Coe a Geotechnical designer with Beca. Coe said back in February bore holes were done to sample the harbor floor for the foundation work.
In a nutshell, development will involve widening the western side of the channel by 10m, straightening the present wharf to provide a straight keyline face some 270m long, dredging to increase depth from 5.8m to 8m and removing some 100,000 cubic metres of material.
The development is necessary as the minimum length of vessels now being built is around 120m compared to the shorter length vessels -90m- now servicing Rarotonga.
The project will cost some US$18 million. The ADB will loan US$15.5 million and the government will provide US$2.5 million.
At a previous briefing the Herald understood that part of the loan could be repaid in a currency other than US dollars so we could take advantage of a better exchange rate but it seems this is now not the case.
Youdale said a decision on the tenders will be made before the end of the year. The project is expected to be completed by December 2012.

By Charles Pitt

Herald Issue 463 10 June
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