Dubbo Regional Council has defended its original decision to appoint Shearer Contracting Pty Ltd – which has now been placed in voluntary administration – to deliver the Boundary Road extension.
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Work on the project was suspended this week, after Mitchell Griffiths and Chad Rapsey, of Rapsey Griffiths Insolvency and Advisory, were appointed joint and several administrators of Shearer Contracting Pty Limited on April 4.
The administrators have started an urgent assessment of the company’s financial position, performance and work-in-progress.
Council’s director infrastructure and operations Chris Devitt said the company was awarded the $2.754 million tender for stage one of the project “following a competitive tender process following council’s policies”.
“This situation, while disappointing, could not have been anticipated,” he said.
“However, council remains committed to finding the best solution to re-commence construction as soon as possible to complete the project.”
Stage one involves a fully-kerbed, two-lane road with integrated cycle lanes and 600 metres of piped storm water drainage between Wheelers Lane and Alexandrina Avenue, as well as a roundabout at Wheelers Lane.
The project is jointly-funded by the state government ($4m) and council ($2m), with Alkane Resources pitching in as part of its $2.3m voluntary planning agreement. Stage one was set to be completed by July. Mr Devitt was still “confident we can … get the job done this year”.
“Unfortunately this is not particularly uncommon in the contracting world, and probably one of the benefits of this project is it’s fairly early days so the ability [is there] to restart the project,” he said. “I don’t think you could blame any complexities of this job on the business going into administration.”
Mr Devitt would not be drawn on how many local subcontractors may have been affected.
“The administrators (Rapsey Griffiths Insolvency and Advisory) have a process to work through for all stakeholders and creditors associated with Shearing Contracting including local and other NSW-based sub-contractors,” he said.
“The effect on other businesses is a matter for those businesses and council respects the individual circumstances of those businesses and their right to confidentiality as the administrators work through this process.”
