The Contracts Manager: Construction North (CM: CN) was the Contractor on all the pipelines. The CM: CN advertised a bid for the NR6 pipeline's originally designed steel pipe materials (Bid W9041) during August 2006. The GRP suppliers provided an alternative offer for GRP pipe material, for R11 million (final cost = R13,308 million) , which would have been R 8 million cheaper than the lowest offer of R19 million for steel materials. Steel pipes would have a delivery period of between 4,5 to 9 months from the date of order due to the requirements of the Vaal River Eastern Sub- system Augmentation Project (VRESAP) scheme.