$17m SH88 cycleway budget blowout

Work continues on the cycle-walkway linking Dunedin to Port Chalmers at Blanket Bay. The path is...
Work continues on the cycle-walkway linking Dunedin to Port Chalmers at Blanket Bay. The path is now forecast to cost at least 65% more than originally budgeted. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY
A $17 million increase in costs for the West Harbour cycle and walkway is part of a national trend of cycleway budget blowouts.

Costs have been increasing since the Dunedin project was announced in 2019, but another $10.5 million was added to the project as recently as April, official information has revealed.

Nevertheless, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says the 5km project would likely have been approved regardless of its new $43 million price tag.

Agency senior project manager Jason Forbes said yesterday the shared path under construction was the final link to Port Chalmers after the completion of the 4.5km Dunedin to St Leonards shared path 10 years ago.

The second half of the project was more complex because of connections with KiwiRail infrastructure, reclamations required, and work around heritage seawalls, Mr Forbes said.

The path along State Highway 88 linked the city to the port, and communities along the way, and it also had a wider visitor appeal, he said.

Further, because New Zealanders needed to be ready for climate change and less reliant upon cars for transport, the project "would have been well-placed to get the funding even at the higher cost level".

An RNZ investigation into the country's cycleway building programme showed this week that by late last year the transport agency knew its cycle-walkway programme faced overspending of almost 10% — its $618 million national work programme was ballooning to $670 million for the 2021-24 period.

At the top of the overspending list was the Lower Hutt to Wellington trail.

The Melling-Petone path in Lower Hutt was less than 3km long and had increased from $17 million in 2017, to a forecast $65 million.

The budget for the 7km Petone-Ngauranga section, already running two years behind its original opening date of 2023-24, had escalated from $182 million to $192 million.

The Dunedin to Port Chalmers spending increase was also among the highest in the country.

Official information shared with the Otago Daily Times showed the Dunedin project, approved at $26.5 million, first increased $3.8 million in October 2019, for an increased tender price, plus contingency.

There were increases in overhead costs of $600,000 in April 2020 and then another $1.4 million in July last year.

In December there was a further increase of $800,000 for the agency’s share of a water main realignment.

Then, in April, $10.5 million was added to the project for additional costs for reclamation, unforeseen ground conditions, temporary level crossings to enable reclamation to take place, plus KiwiRail costs for block of line, track and signal work.

When asked if the project had been poorly planned, Mr Forbes said the amount of preparatory work required for any major engineering project was risk-based and some of the assumptions made were not correct.

But that could happen in projects of such a scale.

"As with all our major capital projects, we do a review of each stage at its completion and are always open to learning from each one."

He said there was a lot of work being undertaken, from the large earth retaining wall north of the St Leonards Yacht Club to Sawyers Bay, where KiwiRail was laying new sleepers and rails in order to realign the final section of track early in July.

Where the track enters Port Chalmers, specialists had been brought in to start construction of two further timber retaining walls, he said.

When the project began in 2020, the plan was to have the path opened by the end of the year, Mr Forbes said.

However, that target was looking less likely due to the shut down for Covid and other Covid associated delays, including materials and labour supply issues.

"There will definitely be sections completed before Christmas, but the official opening will more realistically be early 2023," he said.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz

 

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