HARBOUR BRIDGE EXTENSION

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 1

HARBOUR BRIDGE EXTENSION

Japanese Expected To Get Contract

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, July 11.

The Auckland Harbour Bridge Authority is expected tomorrow to approve a tender by a huge Japanese engineering firm for the extension of the harbour bridge. The chairman of the authority (Sir John Allum) confirmed today that the Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Company, of Tokyo, had submitted the lowest tender for the addition of two lanes on each side of the bridge.

The president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) said the F.O.L. would strongly resist the use of Japanese in New Zealand either as workmen or as “bosses” over New Zealand workmen.

Sir John Alltun, however, denied a newspaper report that a large number of Japanese workers would be Involved. “It is not true,” he said. “There will be only a handful of technicians.” A tremendous amount of prefabricated steel was involved “done in a way which cannot be done in New Zealand." “That is where the money lies,” said Sir John Allum. New Zealand engineers with New Zealand workers would carry out about 30 per cent of the value of the job, the actual erection. “There is no proposal to| bring a large number of Japanese or any other overseas workers to New Zealand. We don't want to bring people into the country when it can he done locally.” He said he did not expect any trouble from the F.O.L. over the proposal. Sir John Allum also dismissed as “nonsense” a state-

ment in the same report that the Japanese bid was about £2 million more than the estimate.

He was “more than satisfied” with the tender, which was about 10 to 15 per cent above the estimates made by the authority’s consultants, Freeman Fox and Partners, more than two years ago. “Costs are steadily going up,” he said. “Nothing is going down.’ He emphasised that the tender in question was for the steel structure of the bridge extension only. This represented about half the work covered by the £6.25 million estimate made by the consultants for the extension. A 10 to 15 per cent increase on half of £6.25 million is an increase of between £313,000 and £470,000. “No Money Worries” Asked whether the higher costs could delay toll reductions, Sir John Allum said: “We’re not worried about the

extra finance at all. So far nothing has occurred which substantially affects our own financial forecasts.”

The forecasts would be reconsidered when the authority knew what the whole job would cost.

The remainder of the work, on reading, would be advertised locally for tender. “We expect the drawings any time. Then we have to get them approved and press on with the work, for the sooner things are done the better.” It is understood that the tender by IshikawajimaHarima is substantially lower than those put forward by the other four tenderers, who include the builders of the present bridge, the British firm of Dorman Long. F.O.L. Reaction Mr Skinner said that the F.O.L. would not agree under any circumstances to the introduction of Japanese labour to New Zealand. “Sir John was advised of this some time ago,” he said. “They would never get the bridge built,” he said. “We would fight it every way we know how.” There was plenty of local labour who in conjunction with British contractors, could build the bridge “without going outside.” Told that Sir John Allum said only “a handful of technicians” would je brought in, Mr Skinner said: “We are only concerned with the factor of Japanese labour coming into this country. “But if Sir John thinks New Zealanders will work under the direction of Japanese, I tend to think he will be wrong.

“If a Japanese architect or technician is designing the bridge in Japan that is alright But if he is a boss for our New Zealand workmen here, it is a different matter altogether.” The firm of IshikawajimaHarima, founded in 1853, has a capital of £24 million. In addition to civil engineering construction its activities include making ships, land, marine and aircraft engines, conventional and atomic power equipment and many other types of machinery.