Page 5378 - Week 12 - Thursday, 28 October 2010
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the end of the Defects Liability period. Further regular inspections were made by ActewAGL staff. In 2009 it was decided to engage an external agency with the expertise to inspect and report on the status of the concrete structures.
11. I am advised by ACTEW that initial reports suggested a ‘watching brief”. The inspections and the investigations carried out in 2009 suggested deterioration of the concrete.
12. (a) – (c) I am advised that routine testing first commenced around September 2005. At that time the inspections carried out resulted in a recommendation to carry out future inspection and testing. Following regular inspections, it was decided to engage an external agency with the necessary expertise to inspect and report. In late 2008 to early 2009, Mahaffey Associates were engaged to carry out inspection testing and a report was issued in April 2009. A further report by Mahaffey Associates was issued in July 2009.
(d) I am advised that a program of works was prepared and a project was initiated to apply a protective coating to the affected concrete structures.
(e) I am advised that the plant was designed to treat water from Bendora Dam. To help cope with effects of the drought, ActewAGL then began to use minor amounts of water from Cotter Dam (January 2006) and after work on the plant was able to use water from Murrumbidgee River (May 2007). Significant work was done at the plant in 2006 to permit it to adequately treat water from Murrumbidgee River and increased quantities of water from the Cotter Dam. Please note that the water from these two sources is different to the Bendora supply. Warranty provisions were pursued. However, as detailed above in item (7), in 2006 new raw water supplies were sourced and considerable additional work was done at the plant to accommodate the poorer quality water.
(f) and (g) Please refer to the response under 13 below.
13. (a) I am advised that ActewAGL's recommendation to ACTEW was included with the initial funding request submitted to ACTEW on 12 October 2009, and endorsed by ACTEW on 14 October 2009. The initial endorsement only provided for the engagement of a consultant to prepare tender documents to allow competitive tendering of the necessary works. A subsequent ACTEW endorsement on 18 December 2009 allowed the physical remedial works to proceed.
(b) I am advised that the recommendation from ActewAGL to ACTEW was made by ActewAGL's General Manager Water following recommendations by external and internal personnel based on work carried out.
(e) I am advised that the ACTEW Board authorised project funding and ActewAGL's Board authorised the award of the contract. The approvals were recommended on the basis of the report from Mahaffey & Associates Pty Ltd.
(f) Please refer to Table 1 and 2 below.
(g) In a response to a question from the Select Committee on Estimates in May 2010, I advised that the total budget was $9 million. Since that time, additional funding has been approved by ACTEW due to an increase in the scope of the works required.
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