- Rt Hon Winston Peters
Minister for Rail Winston Peters has welcomed KiwiRail identification of three potential construction partners for delivering the 'design sprint' needed for the Government to proceed with funding a cost-effective Marsden Point Rail Link.
"This 19-kilometre railway is needed. It is blindingly obvious that Northport requires a rail connection like every other major port in this country, and more specifically for a port identified by the major shipping lines as critical to New Zealand's export future," Mr Peters says.
"The previous Government allocated $410 million, seemingly at random because they did so without any clue of the design or costs and subsequently received a billion dollar estimate from KiwiRail.
"Since resuming responsibility for Rail we have overhauled the Marsden Point Rail Link process with KiwiRail opening its design data to the market who put forward their own designs (at their cost) to identify cheaper ways of building the line, which both we and KiwiRail have welcomed.
"Today, we are pleased to announce three companies will be competing in a design sprint to flesh out their low-cost design options and provide the Government with a far lower estimate with far higher confidence to proceed with.
"The three companies are respected infrastructure builders: Acciona, a Downer/HEB joint venture, and Martinus Rail.
"The companies will focus on further refinement of rail alignment to reduce earthworks volume, optimising the construction sequencing, investigating the other options to deal with ground conditions, and exploring different bridge and level crossing options, among various options.
"Just as we have done with the ferries, our no-nonsense approach to infrastructure knows no boundaries," Mr Peters says.
