Contract dispute to court

A dispute over the awarding of a $100 million-plus roading contract is due to head to court on Monday.

GHP Piling is taking a case to the High Court at Auckland after it failed to win a role in the State Highway 1-20 project in Auckland. The works were part of the NZ Transport Agency's contract for construction of a four-lane motorway in Manukau linking State Highway 1 to State Highway 20.

GHP's action is against a joint venture between construction firms Leighton and Works for a breach of process contract. The defendants are large Australian-based firms working in New Zealand, primarily on state-funded jobs. GHP is an Auckland-based specialist piling and foundation contractor which has been in operation since 1944.

The case is aiming to test the obligations of the main contractor to act fairly when employing subcontractors via a tender process.

The piling job was put out to tender by the two defendants and then awarded to Fletcher Construction's Brian Perry Civil, not GHP, which had also bid.