Building on Papua New Guinea

Fletcher Construction initially

became involved in Papua New Guinea with the supply and erec tion of 342 houses in Bougainville in early 1970.

In 1980 Fletcher Construction was awarded the contract for the construction of the National Parliament Building at Waigani and established a permanent base in Port Moresby. Fletcher, at this time, acquired Morobe Construction, a company formed in 1958. Morobe Construction had undertaken substantial

projects including:

• Port Moresby Travelodge • Port Moresby National Museum & Art Gallery • Goroka Hospital • Kimbe Provincial Headquarters • Bialla Health Centre

• Bainyik Agricultural College

• Lae Post & Telecommunications

College

With the operations merged, all pro jects are now undertaken as Fletcher Morobe Construction Pty Limited, a NIDA-registered company, with an autonomous localised operation in Port

Moresby having ISO 9002 quality accred

itation in its own rights. Fletcher Morobe Construction Pty Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fletcher Construction New Zealand & South Pacific Ltd, part of Fletcher Challenge Construction which has an annual turnover of SNZI billion.

Fletcher Challenge Ltd has assets of SUS9.I billion.

Opertaions

Fletcher Morobe is diversified in its

construction operations throughout Papua

New Guinea. It has well proven experi ence in building and civil enginerering

works for both infrastructure and com mercial projects. Contracts are undertaken in urban and remove locations.

Major projects undertaken by Fletcher Morobe include: • National Parliament Building • Ok Tedi Housing • Windward Apartments • Bank of Papua New Guinea • Pacific Place • Vulupundi Haus • Australian HC Housing, Konedobou • National Provincial Hospitals • Fourth Street Development for POSB • Lae Mackerel Cannery • Port Moresby National High School Many other projects have been under taken by Fletcher Morobe, including com mercial and housing, high- and low-rise buildings, bridge and ports works, works at mines and oil development areas including Ok Tedi, Porgera, Bougainville and Milne Bay.

Fletcher Morobe is committed to max imising its use of local resources and training of PNG national employees.

Presently, Fletcher Morobe employs appximately 800 PNG nationals and 50 expatriates.

Major works currently in progress include the new Australian High Commission Chancery, a four-storey building in Waigani valued at K 16.6 mil lion, extensions to the female dormitory complex and various study and adminis trative buildings for the University of Papua New Guinea valued at K 11.3 mil lion. The largest contract in the South Pacific currently under construction by Fletcher is the K 100-million Port Moresby (Jackson’s) International Airport Redevelopment project.

In March 1995, Fletcher Morobe was awarded this prestigious project in the face of major international competition. It was the only non-Asian contractor to pre qualify and subsequently bid for the rede velopment work in 1994.

Good progress has been made and Fletcher Morobe is well on target for com pletion at the end of March 1997.

Major civil engineering works on the project include excavation and replace ment of large areas of soft ground to form platforms for the taxiways and aprons, concrete and asphalt aprons and asphalt taxiways to the new international and domestic terminals, new public and ser vice access reading, including a bridge across Boroko Creek, and carparks.

Building work includes the construc tion of new two-storey international and domestic terminal buildings, ancillary ser vice buildings, the air traffic control tower and four-storey building, inclusive of associated services and specialist installa

tions including Security CCTV, security

screening, flight information system, bag gage handling, firefighting systems and the like. ■