[Article] Luas contractor agrees finishing bonus

Victor

Looks like the miniature is looking to the local elections

http://www.thepost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-625175635-pageUrl--2FHome.asp

Luas firm agrees finishing bonus
28/12/03 00:00
By Niamh Connolly

The Luas contractor, AMB JV, will receive a bonus if it completes the light rail system by its June and August deadlines under a new deal agreed with the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA).

It was learned that the RPA and AMB JV agreed a deal in the last few weeks for an undisclosed bonus in return for finishing the Sandyford line by June 2004 and the Tallaght line by August 2004. Under the arrangement, risks relating to variations in the contract have been highlighted by the RPA.

Additional workers have been drafted into specific pressure points such as the Luas line on St Stephen's Green.

The Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, welcomed the RPA's deal as a "seismic shift". "In the last month, a whole new deal was agreed," Brennan said. "There is a bonus if they finish on time and they have bought out some of the risk, but will finish on budget. The dates are not movable and I have told them it must be open in June and in August."

The bonus payment is included in the RPA's latest Luas cost estimates of €775 million, which includes a risk fund of €84 million.

Michael Sheedy, the project manager of the Luas, said the risk fund would also cover a recent agreement with four sub-contractors on compensation for utilities diversion and land purchases to date.

The Sunday Business Post has also learned that the capital's integrated ticketing system linking Luas with other public transport modes is to cost almost €30 million.

However, the new ticketing network linking Luas with Dublin Bus, Iarnrod Éireann and Bus Éireann will not be in operation until the end of 2005.

An international consultancy firm, Sequoia, was recently contracted by the RPA to provide design advice on integrated ticketing after Luas goes into operation.

The transport minister conceded that the integrated ticketing system was costly, but said figures from the RPA showed it was twice as expensive in five other cities.
"This is a complex computerised system," Brennan said. "If you get off Luas and go onto Metro or Dublin Bus, all the systems have to talk to each other. It means different systems can still compete, yet run from a central kitty."

Sequoia is one of several contractors that will be appointed by the RPA to advise on the new system which the agency estimates will cost €28 million.

Frank Allen, the chief executive of the RPA, declined to provide specific figures on the costs of the consultants.

sceptre

So they're getting a bonus for completing the work at the time they originally said they would? Nice work if you can get it

Victor

No, a bonus for finishing late, although no doubt there are individual extenuating circumstances, I don't think a year late is acceptable.

Of course this is possibly just a way to hide some of the bloopers made along the way.

Capt'n Midnight

Will they still be "on budget" if the bonus is taken into account ?

Victor

The Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, welcomed the RPA's deal as a "seismic shift". "In the last month, a whole new deal was agreed," Brennan said. "There is a bonus if they finish on time and they have bought out some of the risk, but will finish on budget. The dates are not movable and I have told them it must be open in June and in August."

The bonus payment is included in the RPA's latest Luas cost estimates of €775 million, which includes a risk fund of €84 million.

That said the budget has been revised at various stages (since inception circa 1996).

West Briton

And well the original budget might be revised, when some of the granted wishes of residents through the Public Enquiries are costed out. You don't get two metre high concrete walls to "screen" the trams from some houses for nothing.

Of course, the grafitti and tagging that goes along with them are free to the community