New technology is allowing Tauranga City Council to table competitive tender proposals for the latest section of the $102million Southern Pipeline.

Councillors met yesterday to review the options for the Memorial Park to Matapihi section of the Southern Pipeline.

The Memorial Park directional drilling site back in 2010.

So far nearly half of the pipeline, from Maleme Street to Memorial Park, has been completed at a cost of $41million.

The harbour crossing taking the pipeline from Memorial Park across the harbour to the sewage plant in Te Maunga is budgeted to cost $62.1 million and is expected to be completed by June 2016.

The southern pipeline is a 23km long 900mm diameter sewer laid from Maleme Street to Te Maunga via city streets.

Yesterday councillors decided to look at other options for the harbour crossing including running the pipeline directly from Memorial Park to Te Maunga.

The current option is to run the pipeline up Devonport Road to 1^st Avenue where it would cross the harbour to Te Maunga.

Councillors voted to open the harbour crossing pipeline section to a design build process where contractors can submit proposals on both options.

This proposal will be an open competitive tender process, granting Tauranga City Council chief executive Leigh Auton the right to award the contractor.

Elements of the tender process include partnering and early contractor involvement, competitive pricing and a principal's escape clause should the final contract price and/or design prove unsatisfactory.

Tauranga City Council group manager city services Ian MacDonald says the project has so far cost $41m out of the $102.4 million budget.

He says improvements in technology since the project first began in 2007 allow a wider range of contractors to bid for the contracts at more competitive prices.

'When we first looked at going across the harbour technology was limited and we would have needed to bring equipment across from overseas. Since then technology has moved on and there are now more options to look at rather than go with the existing proposal.”

The current proposal to lay a pipe along Devonport Road will impact residents, road users and businesses, but Ian assures council mitigated measures are currently in place including the timing of the works and method of construction.

Construction of the Memorial Park to 1^st Avenue pipeline section is scheduled for March – October 2014.

So far there has been no detailed design for the harbour crossing, but a detailed design is in place for the Matapihi to Te Maunga section and will go up for tender in March and April this year.

Councillor Bill Faulkner says he supports the proposal as it is a sensible way forward to throw it out to the market.

'In Ian and his team I have every confidence they will not go into this blindly.”