The Solution

Funding

Latest estimates tell us that the cost of repairing the current damage is around $50 million. We fully understand these repair costs are beyond what CHB ratepayers can afford, which is why we've submitted a funding application to Waka Kotahi.

Until now, Council's emergency release of $500,000 from the Catastrophic Events Fund has allowed subcontractors to carry out necessary works to keep the roads open and safe to use, as well as make a start on vital geotechnical investigations on four key sites. These investigations will give us the information we need to plan the full scale of repairs required.

The damage to roads and associated funding requirements is a nation-wide issue, with many if not all Council’s reaching out to Waka Kotahi for financial support. With this said, we are anticipating that Waka Kotahi will grant a portion of the required funding early next year to allow us to continue on with and complete the first stages of repairs. Given the full scale of work is expected to take three years, Council will continue to apply for further funding in a phased approach over this time.

In aid of being proactive, and not resting on its laurels, Council last week resolved to release another $700,000 from the Catastrophic Events Fund to ensure we are able to maintain momentum whilst we await a response from Waka Kotahi.  

Scope/Tenders

Council has engaged engineering and design consultant Stantec, to assist with the process of prioritising the individual repair jobs that make up this significant programme of work. This involves a thorough and rigorous process which considers many factors. These include, but are not limited to:

• Current safety risk
• Level of accessibility
• Volumes of traffic that use affected roads/routes
• Scale of each repair – how long will it take and how much will it cost
• Any associated cultural impacts

Once funding has been granted and prioritisation work complete, Council will undertake a tender process to procure contractors who will carry out the physical works. If you are interested in understanding our approach to procurement you can ready our Procurement Policy here.

More information on this will be provided once we are nearer to this stage.

Construction

Once the full body of work has been mapped out and contractors secured, we will be in a position to tell our community more about the actual construction work to be carried out as part of this project.