KEY POINTS:
Transpower has brought forward $50 million of maintenance work on the national grid, with another $50m in the pipeline as the Government looks to save jobs and stimulate the economy.
Prime Minister John Key and a host of ministers yesterday announced the accelerated construction of five new schools and the upgrading of 10,000 state houses as part of a $500 million infrastructure package.
The package included $216.7m for education, $142.5m for transport and $124.5m to be spent on housing, with about $100m of the projects due to begin before June 30.
Most of the projects were already planned and have been fast-tracked to boost the Government's economic stimulus plan.
Transpower announced today that it was bringing forward $50m of maintenance work on the national grid.
Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee said the grid operator had brought forward work planned for the next 10 years after talks with the Government.
He said a further $50m of accelerated infrastructure work on the grid involving conductor upgrading was also planned pending regulatory approval.
Transpower chief executive Patrick Strange said the work would focus on pylon maintenance, civil work and substation maintenance, predominantly in rural areas across the country.
"Advancing these works makes sound business sense for Transpower, since there are major cost savings and synergies in doing the work as part of one programme."
Mr Brownlee said contracts to work on the upgrade would be offered as soon as April.
"Not only is it important work for maintaining the transmission network, but it has relatively high labour and New Zealand material costs.
"Much of the work is going to be contracted out to regional contractors and employers - valuable work at the time an economic slowdown."
- NZPA
