In the senior civil service`s office, which oversees Sydney`s A $2.1 billion light rail line, departures have been rife, and Andy Summers, the project`s head, has announced his departure.
The Sydney Morning Frontier reported that five of the top eight leaders of the Sydney Light Rail Transportation Office had left their jobs as part of a reform of the functions of the main transport agency in the new state.
Internal emails sent to employees on Monday showed that two senior managers in the Project delivery Office had been replaced by civil servants in the agency position, while the post of Project Operations Director remained vacant.
Summers, a former senior executive at UGL, the engineering firm that oversees Sydney`s A $1.8 billion South West Rail Link line, has been replaced by Stephen Pascall, which oversees the $1.8 billion South West Rail Link line.
The independent office of the light rail project was established three years ago to cover the 12-kilometer long light rail line from the ring wharf to Randwick and Kingsford in the south-west region.
According to the source, Pascall is well received in the transport and public services sectors. One person said: "he is the right person to get the light rail project back on track."
Spain`s Acciona, a light rail contractor, will appear in the state council on Thursday for an investigation.
Bede Noonan, managing director of Acciona Australia, warned last month that the project was unlikely to be completed by May 2020, 14 months behind schedule, and revealed that Acciona now estimates that the final cost of building the line will double. To A $1.8 billion.
Acciona is suing the government for A $1.1 billion, accusing it of failing to secure an agreement from (Ausgrid), an Australian grid company, on how to handle key cables under the line, but did not inform the contractor.
As part of a new state transport agency leadership reform, Stephen Troughton, deputy director of infrastructure and services, will leave the new state`s transport sector. These changes include the creation of a new department within the New State Transportation Department, called the Infrastructure and premises Office, headed by under-Secretary-General Peter Regan. The division oversees projects such as new light rail lines in Sydney`s CBD and Parramatta, as well as new state rail delivery projects.
Summers will also leave the New State Transportation Department on Friday.
Sydney`s CBD light rail project has become a political challenge for the Berejiklian government, with legal disputes, soaring costs, repeated delays in construction and long-standing interference by merchants and residents along the lines.
