A central Auckland luxury hotel has threatened court action to force a halt to construction of a section of the City Rail Link.
The City Rail Link project has faced delays and ballooning costs. Photo: RNZ / YouTube
A legal representative of Stamford Plaza in Albert St sent a strongly worded letter to the CRL company insisting that it stop operations because of excessive dust, noise and vibration and loss of access to the hotel.
The cease-and-desist letter said City Rail Link Limited (CRLL) entered into an agreement with the hotel on the basis that work would stop within three years of construction starting.
The agreed date having passed, the letter said there was no end in sight.
"You have breached the terms of the agreement and continue to unreasonably cause nuisance to the hotel," it said.
It added that CRLL also failed to notify potentially affected stakeholders that the workers would be delayed and failed to adopt construction methods that would mitigate some of the disruptions.
The company must accept full responsibility for the loss of revenue and damage suffered by the hotel, and failure to do so would result in a court injunction being sought, the letter said.
"In the meantime, we are quantifying the damage suffered as a result of your breach of the terms of the agreement.
"These will be presented to you in due course. We reserve the right to add and, or supplement the heads of loss and damage."
City Rail Link chief executive Sean Sweeney said it was not funded to deal with compensation claims.
However, he confirmed CRLL was in discussions with the hotel.
"Building a project the size of the City Rail Link in the commercial heart of Auckland has many challenges and the project is committed to continuing to work with all businesses to minimise the impact of its work," he said.
"Businesses are able to seek independent advice regarding any compensation rights that may be available to them under the Public Works Act if they consider that their businesses have been affected financially as a result of the project. CRLL will meet its obligations under the Public Works Act."
To date, no compensation had been paid to any business.