2023 General, news, etc, page-2

https://www.watoday.com.au/national...elay-marred-airport-link-20230111-p5cbt4.html
Contractors in blame game over delay-marred Airport Link
By Jesinta Burton
January 11, 2023 — 11.59am


Perth’s $1.86 billion Airport Link opened with almost enough fanfare to make the tunnel explosion, sinkhole, design faults and delays that plagued the flagship Metronet project a distant memory.

But the scuffle over who’s to blame for those setbacks is only just beginning.


Premier Mark McGowan (centre), PM Anthony Albanese and WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti cut the ribbon at the opening of Perth’s Metronet Airport Link on Sunday.

Global construction company Webuild – formerly Salini Impregilo – and NRW Holdings first dragged lead consultant GHD to court back in May, claiming it was negligent in designing the rail line and had overstated its expertise.

Webuild and NRW inked a deal with GHD in 2015 to design an 8.5-kilometre rail line between Perth Airport and Forrestfield that the pair would later construct.

But it would be another seven years before the project was completed, with the build hindered by a design fault, a sinkhole and a tunnel explosion that injured three workers and saw Webuild slapped with a $200,000 fine.
The line was due to be completed in late 2020, but did not open until October 2022.

And the court case has shed light on what may have been happening behind the scenes while the state government was fielding questions about when the project would be finished.

The spat centres around delays caused by alleged faults in the design and spacing of 12 short tunnels linking the two larger tunnels and three train stations, an oversight Webuild revealed in the WA Supreme Court on Wednesday had led to a $17.5 million cost blowout.

Webuild claims the final design substantially deviated from the original submission.