Acciona, the Spanish company contracted to build the CBD and South East light rail project have today derailed the governments hopes for a March 2019 opening.
The government has been advised to expect an opening date of March 2020 in the best case scenario. This is a full year behind schedule and pushes the opening of the project well the beyond the next state election. Despite this, Transport Minister Andrew Constance is insisting that ALTRAC, of which Acciona is the construction partner, delivers the light rail project in 2019 as per its contract.
It is understood that Transport for NSW initially was skeptical of such a long delay, telling the ALTRAC that it needed to do more to help shorten the delay to being the projects completion within 2019. Transport for NSW eventually conceded to the timeline, despite protests from a furious Constance.
This news comes as both the government and workers on the project accused Acciona of proceeding with a “go slow” on construction. “We were constantly asked to slow down our works,” one has told the government, and there was a claim of “constant delays on material and equipment deliberately done by our supervisors”.
Transport NSW Blog 