Goodline fills O’Rourke hole at Roy Hill

Queensland-based contractor Goodline has been brought onto the Roy Hill iron ore project to finish work left incomplete following the termination of Laing O’Rourke’s $200 million plus contract earlier this week.

While the value of privately-owned Goodline’s contract is undisclosed, it is understood the work will last for at least eight months.

Earlier this week, Henderson-based Civmec Construction and Engineering was appointed to carry out a portion of Laing O’Rourke’s contract - the installation of the car dumper, taking its total contracts at Roy Hill to four.

Laing O’Rourke and Samsung agreed to terminate their contract after failing to agree over what’s understood to be a long-term disagreement regarding delays and determining which party was responsible.

Goodline will now carry out the construction of works at Roy Hill associated with the port stockyard’s structural, mechanical, piping and electrical and instrumentation.

Roy Hill’s major subcontractor Samsung C&T said Goodline was already familiar with the overall construction schedule having previously worked at the $10 billion project.

“We have received a lot of expressions of interest from workers previously contracted to Laing O’Rourke to continue working on the Roy Hill project through the new contractor.  All of the EOIs received have been forwarded to Goodline for necessary processing,” a Samsung spokesperson said.

A Goodline spokesperson said the company was pleased to secure the contract and deliver a significant component of work at the Roy Hill project.

Earlier this week Roy Hill said the project was more than 74 per cent complete and its scheduled completion date would not be impacted by the change in contractors.

Roy Hill is expected to export its first shipment of ore in September of this year.

Laing O’Rourke is the second company to fall out with major subcontractor Samsung because of disagreements over which business was responsible for delays following changed scopes of work.

In November NRW Holdings chairman Ian Burston announced it was in “fairly rigorous discussions” with Samsung after it moved a greater than expected amount of earthworks and tried to renegotiate how much it should be paid.

Neither business has announced if there has been a resolution.