The alignment of East Terrace near Rymill Park will change today as the $160 million O-Bahn City Access Project marks another milestone.
This afternoon traffic travelling on East Terrace between Grenfell and Hutt streets will be switched to a new road, to the west of the existing alignment, in preparation for the next stage of the O-Bahn project.
The next stage includes new excavation as part of the $6 million major tunnelling earthworks component, which has been unbundled to maximise the benefit to local South Australian businesses.
The work has been released by the major contractor McConnell Dowell Australia under the South Australian Industry Participation Policy, giving local businesses a bigger share of major Government projects.
By splitting up the earthworks package, and awarding components to small-to-medium contractors rather than a single contractor, an additional eight South Australian businesses are now working on this stage.
Across the project, local South Australian businesses and contractors have already benefitted from $64 million of works on the project.
Background
The $160 million O-Bahn City Access Project will create a 650-metre tunnel linking priority bus lanes on Hackney Road and Grenfell Street to improve travel times and reliability for Adelaide’s busiest public transport network, as well as for traffic on the Inner City Ring Route.
The new alignment will move East Terrace further west between Grenfell and Pirie streets, incorporating 710sqm of road reserve to Park Lands.
The fountain in the western corner of Rymill Park was removed before construction of the new alignment and will be reinstated next year during remediation works, which will include tree plantings.
The 8 SMEs that are benefitting from the unbundling of the earthworks package are:
- Marzilli Transport
- Page Excavations
- CB&S Civil
- CJP Hire
- ACT Hire
- Envirosweep
- Lucas TCS
- MK2 Recruitment
Contractor McConnell Dowell is committed to ensuring South Australian SMEs have a chance to share in the benefits of the O-Bahn City Access Project.
Approximately 450 jobs are expected to be created during construction with completion scheduled for late 2017.
The South Australian Industry Participation Policy is managed by the Industry Participation Advocate, who ensures local businesses get first go at the almost $4 billion worth of goods and services contracts let annually by the State Government.
Data from the State Procurement Board shows that 90% of the value of goods and services contracts was let to South Australian suppliers in 2014-15. This compares to 79% in 2013-14 and is a massive turnaround from just 51% in 2012-13.
Quotes attributable to Acting Transport and Infrastructure Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith
When local firms win business, it helps create jobs and investment in South Australia.
Through the Industry Participation Policy we are ensuring that strong investment in building South Australia provides maximum benefits for the local construction industry and the thousands of South Australians it employs.
Not only does the O-Bahn City Access Project represent a significant investment in building a stronger public transport network, it will provide enormous benefits to the more than 79,000 road users who navigate this part of the Inner Ring Route and is creating valuable work for local businesses.
The realignment of East Terrace will improve traffic flows through the city as construction continues on the O-Bahn City Access Project, while also adding valuable area to Rymill Park.
Major construction projects valued over $50 million in the 12 months to the end of April 2016 had an estimated work package of dollars spent in South Australia of $637 million out of $698 million.
This is 91% retained spending in the State from major construction procurements in the supply-chain benefitting locally based businesses and shows a significant improvement since the 2013 launch of the SAIPP, administered by Ian Nightingale.
We are currently seeing so many opportunities for businesses in the construction sector in this state. This is the State Government backing local business and achieving results for those businesses and South Australian workers.
Quotes attributable to CB &S Civil Operations Manager Craig Hill
Knowing that we will be supplying our services to a Government project of this magnitude and duration provides our business with additional stability.
We have already hired new staff to fulfil our role within the O-Bahn City Access Project. The prospect of ongoing work gives us confidence to invest and grow our workforce.