Transpower signs $173m contracts for Auckland cabling

Friday 24th December 2010

Transpower has signed contracts worth $173 million for cable manufacturing and installation on its project to install 37km of underground cabling through Auckland.

Transpower general manager grid projects Mike Carter said work would now start on manufacturing the underground cable with the first cable deliveries expected in late 2011. Construction work, in preparation for the cable arrival, would begin in mid-2011.

Commissioning of the project, called the North Auckland and Northland grid upgrade, was targeted for 2013, a year earlier than Transpower's original schedule.

One of the contracts announced today is for a consortium of Nkt Cables and Balfour Beatty UGL to manufacture and install cable between Pakuranga and downtown Auckland, covering about 18km at a value of $82 million. Part of that section would be laid in public roadways, and part would go in the existing Vector tunnel, Transpower said.

The contract for the sections of cable between downtown Auckland and Albany, covering about 19km and with a value of $91 million, had gone to Olex Cables. That cable would cross the Harbour Bridge and run largely under the northern busway, in ducts already installed for the purpose.

The total cost of the project is estimated at up to $500 million, with the work also including the building of new substations in downtown Auckland and on the North Shore.

NZPA

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