Arena construction parties go to court

The gloves are off in the battle over the $20m loss in constructing Vector Arena. Photo / Herald on Sunday

As crowds flow into Auckland's multipurpose arena for Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical Starlight Express, lawyers are scrapping over the venue's construction.

Litigation has begun over the $20 million loss in putting up the waterfront Vector Arena.

The High Court at Auckland last week had a telephone conference scheduled between two parties involved in the arena, which was finished in March 2007. No court date has yet been set for a full hearing.

Lawyers for arena-builder Mainzeal Construction were on Thursday due to have a case management talk with lawyers for the arena's engineers, Holmes Consulting Group.

But Peter Gomm, Mainzeal's chief executive, said the case was at an extremely sensitive stage and he was not at liberty to discuss it.

Bruce Black, head of Holmes, also refused to discuss the matter. Lawyers representing Holmes are understood to be working for their insurers.

The Holmes consulting engineer contracted to work on the arena three years ago was Graham Voysey.

Mainzeal suffered one of the largest construction-contract losses of any builder this decade when it worked on the arena. It declared a loss of $20 million and has vowed to try to recover that from parties it blames for issues at the multi-purpose arena.

Early in 2006, crews and construction workers left the building site after big problems with the roof. Work was done over a weekend to modify the arena's giant roof truss.

Roger Feast, Mainzeal Construction's Auckland area manager at the time, said remedial work was completed and the full building team was back on the job.

An engineering report on the roofing elements recommended strengthening the ceiling beam which spans the 120m-long arena.