Volume 48, No. 11, June 29, 2006
 |
|
The building of Headquarters Joint Operations Command is on track after Praeco was accepted as the preferred tenderer for the project. |
THE $300m Headquarters Joint Operations Command (HQJOC) Project has achieved a major milestone with the announcement of the preferred tenderer to build and operate the new facility to be located near Bungendore, NSW.
Praeco Pty Ltd (comprising Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd and ABN AMRO Australia Limited), pending the successful completion of detailed contract negotiations, is expected to start work at the 220 hectare greenfield site in September/October this year. Contract signing is planned before the end of this month.
The new state-of-the-art headquarters complex will provide a high-tech operations area where operations staff will view a developing situation in real-time via large wall-mounted monitors.
The HQJOC Project sets a significant precedent for the Australian Government in that Praeco Pty Ltd will provide the buildings, infrastructure, maintenance and service components of the project under private financing arrangements.
“The consortium will be required to build, operate and maintain the new headquarters facility for the 30-year term of the contract, after which time the facility will revert to the Commonwealth,” the Director General for the project, AIRCDRE Jack Plenty, said.
“The project is on course for the new headquarters to become operational by late 2008.”
The award in December last year of a three-year, $7m contract to the Queanbeyan-based technology company, Codarra Advanced Systems, for project management and systems engineering services to assist the project in delivering the command, control, communications, computer and intelligence (C4I) systems for the new headquarters, underlined the economic benefit to flow to the region from this project.
Work on the $7 million IT contract was progressing well, AIRCDRE Plenty said.
An extensive independent community awareness survey was conducted late last year which found that a large majority of the local communities in the Queanbeyan, Bungendore, Hoskinstown and Carwoola/Stony Creek areas are aware of the project, and most believe it will have a positive impact on their lives.
For further information log on to http://www.defence.gov.au/id/hqjoc/
