The future of Victoria’s Ararat $350 million prison expansion is up in the air after St Hilliers Construction was placed in voluntary administration this morning.
Sydney-based St Hilliers said it had called in administrators after a dispute over the funding for the project dragged on.
“We have over a number of months explored and exhausted all possible avenues to recapitalise the construction business and find a solution to the significant cost and time overruns on the Ararat Project,” said St Hilliers Group Executive Chairman Tim Casey.
“Unfortunately a solution was not possible under the current regime,” he said in a statement. “It is very regrettable that we have had to initiate this action.”
Last week, work had reportedly stopped at the state’s newest prison project with St Hilliers unable to pay its workers.
The company, which employs about 360 people, is the construction arm of diversified property group St Hilliers.
Some past failures of public-private partnerships include an estimated $700 million in losses arising from Melbourne’s underutilised EastLink road, as well as $800 million in taxpayer liabilities arising from the Sydney Airport Rail Link.
The administrators of St Hilliers Construction, Trent…