Grit expectations not met as contract begins

Police block Filleul  St between London and Hanover Sts yesterday morning after a hard frost made...
Police block Filleul St between London and Hanover Sts yesterday morning after a hard frost made it impassable. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

Downer's new $45 million road maintenance contract got off to a slippery start yesterday, with the contractor failing to grit some of Dunedin's icy roads by its 7.30am deadline.

This comes as Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull expressed confidence the Dunedin City Council's new contract management regime would ensure the mistakes made evident by last year's floods were not repeated.

Downer took over the council contract from Fulton Hogan yesterday and was responsible for gritting the city's streets as black ice caused havoc, resulting in 12 accidents.

Council commercial manager Merrin McCrory said Downer started putting grit on roads at 3am, but some were not gritted by the council's 7.30am deadline.

None of the accidents were on roads Downer failed to grit on time, but the DCC would discuss the issue with the contractor.

Northeast Valley man Bob Forrester contacted the Otago Daily Times, saying he was disappointed Downer had not placed grit on Buccleugh St.

The council had told him it was too dangerous for Downer to get up the street.

Another resident was surprised roads on the hill above St Clair were not gritted by 7.15am.

Downer Lower South Island area manager Anthony van de Water had no comment about the gritting, but, responding to concern from an anonymous tradesman that subcontractors' jobs could be at risk because Downer had taken over the contract, he said the company was "committed to ensuring a decent balance of work with subcontractors to ensure a healthy local market''.

There would also be a need for extra staff at Downer and new roles would be advertised on its website.

Mayor Cull was confident the new contracts, which included the recently announced parks maintenance contract, would "plug the holes that were clearly there in the previous system''.

The extra levels of oversight in the new contracts would help ensure previous failures, like the failure to properly clean mud-tanks, were not repeated, he said.

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