KEY POINTS:
Three of the country's largest building firms have been given just three weeks to finalise their tender bids for Eden Park's 2011 Rugby World Cup upgrade.
Fletcher Construction - a division of the listed Fletcher Building - the Asian-owned Mainzeal Property and Construction and the locally owned Hawkins
Construction have been selected to tender for the major job from a wider field.
On November 13, they got documents specifying the information needed for the tender, which must be delivered to the project managers by December 4.
Waren Warfield, managing director of Auckland consultants RCP who have been appointed project managers for the upgrade tender bid, said these three firms had been chosen and the timeframes set.
He said none was favoured and the winning bid would be chosen by the Eden Park Redevelopment Board.
The process had to be extremely tight so the chosen contractor could be selected and get started working on the building design.
A building contractor needed to be finalised before Christmas to meet short deadlines on the work.
Mr Warfield said he did not expect the board to decide on the winning bid until December 14. "We allowed three weeks, though I think the market is pretty busy and resources are limited. We want to get this builder appointed pre-Christmas to allow for their input into the design so we get the best possible outcome."
The deadline has rankled with some who are saying it is almost impossible to meet the timeframe because of the size and scope of the work involved in the job.
Central to their complaints is the length of time taken in the past few weeks to even develop the shortlist of builders.
One executive said many weeks had passed before he heard the firm he worked for was on the shortlist.
"Calls for expressions of interest for Eden Park were sent out in September and no reply was received until November 9, when RCP sent a letter confirming the construction companies had been accepted for the shortlist," he said.
But Mr Warfield defended the process, saying it was more than adequate.
He added that builders on the shortlist had initial design specifications, a schedule of quantities required for the job, the building programme and details of games to be played at the park.
TENDER PROCESS
* Building firms received documents with tender information on November 13.
* Tenders must be delivered by December 4.
* Board not expected to decide on winning bid until December 14.
* Building contractor needs to be finalised before Christmas.