The Swan River Pedestrian Bridge is a key part of the transport solution for moving people to and from the new Perth Stadium on event days. The process of procuring the bridge shows some of the risks and costs associated with the choice between imported and local content.
In June 2014, Main Roads WA issued a design-and-construct tender for the Bridge with tenders not to exceed a capped fixed price of $50 million.
In October 2014, Main Roads WA received 3 tenders with similar prices. Evaluation included price and quality assessments and was guided by the principle that higher quality scores within the capped budget represent better value for money. The Buy Local Policy was not applied as one of the tenders included a joint venture partner from NSW. The other tenders were from WA. All 3 tenders proposed using imported content.
On 12 March 2015, the panel awarded the contract to the WA-NSW joint venture (JV) based on its flowing design using tubular steel arches.
Main Roads WA is managing the contract. The overall project budget, excluding project management costs, was $65.27 million funded from the Perth Stadium Transport Infrastructure fund.
In March 2016, the JV issued a request for tender for the steel arches and decks to 20 companies. Ten were Australian and 5 were from WA. Two were shortlisted: one from WA and another from Victoria. The JV chose the Victorian company, with the steel arches to be made in Malaysia and delivered on site by September 2016. By June 2017, with the arches 9 months late and the stadium’s opening looming, the JV terminated its contract for the arches.
In June 2017 the government entered an alliance agreement that withholds $2.6 million due to the JV if work is not completed by 16th March 2018. In August 2017, the government and the JV signed a sub-alliance agreement with the other shortlisted company to make the arches. The total contract sum for the bridge is now $83 million, including the $2.6 million incentive payment and excluding project management and new site assembly costs.