MOUNT Gambier City Council will select from six major construction companies to build the $39.1m Mount Gambier Community Recreation Hub after expressions of interest for the project closed last week.
A range of local and Adelaide-based companies will attempt to secure the build, with a decision expected to be made by the end of the year.
City Council chief executive officer Andrew Meddle said all the companies which expressed interest were of sufficient size to undertake the whole project.
“We are now going through a process to evaluate the responses because all we have asked for at this stage is information to enable us to ensure they have the capacity and capability to build the project,” Mr Meddle said.
“We will do that work over the next couple of weeks and then there will be a package of papers to a special council meeting in due course where they will move from the expressions of interest stage to a select tender stage, which will be where we select the head contractor to build the whole project.”
Mr Meddle said the selected company would be expected to sub-contract locally where possible to keep the money in the South East community.
“With a project that has significant state and federal government funding as well as council funding, we want to return as much as that back to the community as we can,” he said.
“Then we get another spin-off as people spend their money locally again and the money keeps being recycled in the community, which is the outcome that council has been trying to broker.”
He said there was a clear requirement within the grant funding agreements that council work towards maximising local content.
“We are setting the bar quite high for the head contractor to make sure all their sub-contractors are local wherever local skills exist,” he said.
“We do recognise their are certain elements of the build project where we will have to seek skills from elsewhere.”
With excitement building around the project each day, Mr Meddle said the community can expect to see the final plans for the hub in the near future.
“On the day we release to the market, we will also release to the community,” he said.
“Having seen a 3D fly-through of the centre looking at the materials that we have selected, it is going to be something absolutely stunning.”
Barring any major hurdles, Mr Meddle said the community would start to see construction take place in early 2020.
“We are looking at the council doing some site preparation works either late this year or early next year, which will give the head contractor a clean slate to start work in early 2020,” he said.
“I think that’s when the community will start to get more excited, when they can see the heavy plant on-site and see the transformation starting to come out of the ground.”
Mr Meddle praised the council team for working above and beyond to meet timelines of the project and deliver something special to the city.
“The team have done a really great job in pulling together so much work on top of their day job to bring this transformational project to fruition for the city,” he said.
“We are really working with the community to make sure it is something for a whole community benefit – this is for everyone.”
While the feedback from the community has been overwhelmingly positive, Mr Meddle said council was under no illusions there would be challenges along the way.
“There will be some points like there are with any major construction project where individuals are affected and they feel the pinch,” he said.
“Council is doing all it can to make sure there are no surprises.”
