The Wagner Group – a Toowoomba-based building services and manufacturing group – announced it would bid for the contract of Sydney’s Badgerys Creek airport, “likely” in partnership with a top-tier construction firm.
According to multiple reports, Wagner director John Wagner projected the company could build the airport for $3.5 billion, a figure described as “well south” of the Federal Government’s $5 to $6 billion price tag.
"We're a bit miffed at [the Government’s] number, but until we're formally asked to tender for it by the Federal Government, we can't make a clear determination on that,” Wagner reportedly told ABC’s AM radio program in May.
"The reality is with Badgerys Creek, it could be going in sort of three years from now if everyone was of a like mind and actually wanted it to happen that quick. I believe it should happen that quick."
As previously reported by Quarry, the Wagner Group built a 2.9km by 45m wide asphalt runway capable of accommodating 747 style aircraft and a terminal building for the Wellcamp Airport project.
The company also set up its own quarry at the airport site and extracted more than eight million tonnes of basalt to provide rock fill for the runway and aggregates for concrete, asphalt and other building materials.
Commenting on whether the company would be able to take on another airport project, Wagner was reported as saying, “Once the design has been done it’s a matter of getting enough people in to do it. We would be more than comfortable building it ourselves. It wouldn’t frighten us at all.”
Federal Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher reportedly met Wagner earlier this year and noted the company would be welcome to tender for the project once the government officially put it forward.
“There is considerable interest in the construction market to build the Western Sydney airport,” Fletcher told The Australian.
Wagner – whose company ranked 14th on the Business Review Weekly (BRW) Rich 200 list in 2015 – added, “It’s a big project, and I think the government would want one of the big guys in with a company such as us to make sure it was executed.”
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