The Australian government has awarded a contract for the second stage of upgrades at the Royal Australian Navy’s Garden Island base in Sydney.
The latest contract represents “stage two” of the Critical Infrastructure Recovery Program which is valued at AUD 286 million.
The works represent the government’s investment in Garden Island as the primary home port for Navy ships on the east coast. It follows previous funding of AUD 213 million for Stage 1 in 2017, with wharf infrastructure works already underway.
Defence has engaged Lendlease Building Pty Ltd to deliver the works, with construction scheduled to start in May 2019 and complete in late 2023.
“Lendlease has developed a Local Industry Capability Plan, which will maximise opportunities for local and Indigenous business to be involved, with approximately 2,500 personnel being directly and indirectly employed over the construction period,” assistant defense minister David Fawcett said.
The project is being undertaken to address significant condition, capacity and compliance issues with the wharves and base-wide engineering services.
Stage one works will demolish the existing cruiser and oil wharves, and build a new wharf in a revised alignment in their place. The new realigned wharf will be equipped with a crane, engineering services and wharf furniture to replace those removed during demolition. Stage two will remediate the remaining wharves as well as base-wide engineering services such as the electrical and fuel systems.