5year roading contract given to Whitestone
THE Waitaki District Council has ditched SouthRoads as its roading maintenance contractor after a decade, returning to its councilowned organisation in a deal worth more than $25 million.
Whitestone Contracting held the contract from its inception in 1992 until 2012, when the council controversially awarded it to the Southlandbased company SouthRoads which is owned by HWR Group.
Last month, the council said it was running a new procurement process for the contract after all tenders in the initial process were declined due to budget constraints. Three contractors submitted expressions of interest before the council received two tenders. The twoweek assessment was undertaken by staff, independent contractors and councillors.
Yesterday, the council said Whitestone Contracting has been awarded the $5.2 million annual contract for the next five years, with the possibility of two oneyear extensions.
When contacted SouthRoads Otago regional manager Connell Burdon would not comment on the number of staff affected, but said it was intended to redeploy staff within the company.
He described the tender process as ‘‘incredibly long and drawn out’’.
‘‘Obviously we are very disappointed in the tender outcome. It is not the result that the team has spent the best part of 10 months working towards,’’ Mr Burdon said.
The company had a solid workload and was excited about future opportunities within the Waitaki district and surrounding regions, he said.
In 2017, Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher defended awarding the contract to SouthRoads. Some Waitaki rural road users had reported concerns with the quality and level of maintenance of rural roads.
When contacted yesterday, the council’s assets operation manager Joshua Rendell said the current state of the district’s roads had no bearing on the change of contract.
Whitestone Contracting chief executive Paul Bisset said about 50 staff were employed in the district and an additional 17 fulltime roles would be required. Some would be covered by existing staff in the short term.
The company was advertising for the roles, some had already been filled and would be on board for the start of the contract on October 1.
The contract would provide growth opportunities and there would be opportunities for local subcontractors and suppliers.
The council previously estimated the cost of recent flooding damage to reach $1.5 million. Mr Bisset said he was confident the company could work with the council to fix the damage.
Earlier this year, Whitestone Contracting celebrated its 30th anniversary.
It employs about 100 people at its Fairlie, Twizel, Cromwell, Queenstown, Alexandra, Dunedin and Oamaru depots.