Stoush over $100m piling job

An artist's impression of the new Manukau rail station and tertiary campus building proposed for Manukau City. Picture / supplied

Leighton Contractors, Downer EDI, Brian Perry Civil and GHP Piling featured in a court scrap over work on a $100 million-plus roading contract.

GHP went to the High Court at Auckland against Leighton and Downer over part of the Manukau Rail link project - a piling job put out to tender by the two defendants and then awarded to Fletcher Construction's Brian Perry Civil, not GHP which had bid for the job.

The works were part of the NZ Transport Agency's contract for construction of a four-lane motorway in Manukau linking State Highway 1 to State Highway 20, a $100 million job.

GHP bid for part of the work and Associate Judge David Gendall said the piling business maintained it had struck a preliminary agreement with Leighton and Downer yet the contract went to Fletcher's Brian Perry, partly because of a timing issue.

"It seems the defendants accepted a late tender from - and ultimately awarded the variation work subcontract to - a third party, Fletcher Construction company trading as Brian Perry Civil," the judge said.

GHP claimed that breached preliminary contracts and the Fair Trading Act and the obligation for parties to act in good faith.

The court heard how when a project is put out to tender, the invitation becomes an offer and the contract has conditions, the most pertinent being the closing time and date. But after tender closing and post-tender negotiations, a price was sought and then accepted from the late tender of Fletcher subsidiary, Brian Perry, GHP claimed.

Had it not been for the late Fletcher bid, GHP would have been awarded the contract, the piler claimed.

GHP's action was preliminary, seeking a full set of tender documents. Leighton and Downer maintained the only document was the head contract.

The judge said other documents existed and were "clearly relevant" to GHP's case. He ordered the piler should get a full set of tender documents. The case is set down for five days from June 11.