KEY POINTS:
Auckland mayor John Banks is seeking to sue the contractors involved in the makeover of the city's busiest motorway interchange, after the budget blew out by $14 million.
But the contractors say they're not to blame and there were factors outside their control.
More than 55,000 vehicles pass through the Greenlane roundabout each day. The "Project Greenlane" upgrade will now cost $26 million rather than the planned $12 million - and is also nine months late.
The project became politically embarrassing for the former mayor Dick Hubbard and his council, under whom the Queen St facelift also ballooned from a budgeted $23 million to $44 million.
Now new mayor Banks has asked the council to seek ways in which the Project Greenlane costs can be recovered. "It has to be one of the worst local government contract disasters in history," Banks said. "Perhaps we can redress or recover some cash from this monumental tombstone project."
When the $14 million cost blowout was first reported to the council in July, chief executive David Rankin ordered a full investigation into the project by the internal audit team.
The council refused to release the report to the Herald on Sunday and said it would be inappropriate for it to comment regarding court action or compensation claims over any contractor or project.
Project Greenlane was supposed to be finished last month but is now due to be completed next July.
A council report from July 2007 stated that the council tender evaluation team was concerned about the low tender price of the highest-ranked tender - HEB Smithbridge.
HEB assured the council that it did have the resources to meet the contract and did not want to withdraw its bid. But soon after being awarded the contract, HEB secured another big contract - the East Tamaki motorway interchange - and a number of key staff anticipated to be on the Greenlane project were moved there.
"From that time it has been difficult to keep the Greenlane project appropriately resourced," wrote Allen Bufton in the transport report.
Bruce Pulman, owner of HEB Smithbridge, was confident his company had met the terms of the Greenlane contract with the council.
"We believe we've complied with the contract and it's been a difficult job. Yes there's been a blowout but I don't think they're attributable to our company, there were a lot of external factors."
The challenges included difficulties acquiring commercial properties along Great South Rd, traffic management problems, uncertainty over where underground service lines were buried and the discovery of hard volcanic rock beneath footpaths.
