China Railway First Group contract terminated

The Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) has terminated the road construction project from 9-Miles to the Rewa Bridge held by China Railways First Group (CRFG).

This was confirmed by FRA in a statement from its chief executive officer Jonathan Moore.

“In order to clarify our position, and to allay any concerns or further speculation, the Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) is confirming that the contract with China Railways First Group (CRFG), to deliver the highway works from 9-Miles to Rewa Bridge on Kings Road, has been terminated,” Mr Moore said.

“Over recent months FRA has been working with CRFG to try to get the project back on track but these efforts have not been successful and the project has fallen further behind programme. “The section of Kings Road that was to be delivered by CRFG is entry to Fiji for many visitors and the continued and increasing delays to completion has been deemed unacceptable, resulting in the current action.

“The decision to terminate any construction contract is not taken lightly and the management of the FRA has strictly followed the conditions of the contract in doing so. “Over recent days the FRA has been in discussion with replacement contractors to deliver the remainder of the works and these arrangements are approaching completion.

“We have also been made aware of concerns over the recent termination of workers by CRFG. “The 9-Miles to Rewa Bridge project is the only project that has been terminated so if CRFG is unable to reallocate staff then they will be taking action to terminate those that cannot be put onto other projects.

“The FRA has no intention of losing experienced workers, particularly as they were not the root cause of the reason to terminate the contract, so in good faith we are in discussion with other contractors working on FRA projects with a view to absorbing as many as possible into running projects.

“Over the next week we will be continuing in this effort to support these displaced workers,” Mr Moore said.