John Holland wins $59m PTA contract

John Holland has won its first substantial contract in Western Australia in several years, with the Public Transport Authority of WA awarding the Chinese-owned company a contract for track maintenance services on Perth's urban rail network.

Under the $59 million contract, John Holland will provide routine maintenance and fault correction of track infrastructure on the PTA rail network, and may also provide upgrades to or construct new track infrastructure.

Further, the company will undertake track and civil works for upgrades around Claremont train station, according to details on the tenders.wa.gov.au web site.

It beat two other submissions for the works, which are due to complete in 2025.

The contract win came after John Holland bought the RCR O'Donnell Griffin rail business in December 2018, strengthening its capability in signalling and power systems. 

The PTA deal follows a lean period in WA for John Holland, which has been embroiled in a long-running dispute with the state government over cost blowouts and delays on the Perth Children’s Hospital project.

John Holland announced last year it would seek more than $300 million in compensation from the state government.

Perth Children’s Hospital opened three years later than expected in May 2018, following a series of issues including water contimination and asbestos.

Apart from the hospital contract, which was awarded in 2012, John Holland's last major government contract in WA was the $176 million stage 1 of the Northlink road project, awarded in January 2016.

In the past 18 months, the state government has invited John Holland to tender for at least two projects, the $69 million Denny Avenue level crossing and the $65 million upgrade of the Wanneroo Road and Ocean Reef Road interchange, but it has not succeeded at either.

It has had a lot more success in other states, recently winning contracts with the NSW government to build the $735 million Sydney Football Stadium and the $299 million Waterloo metro station while in Victoria it has won contracts to build a new prison and remove multiple level crossings.