Freshly laid sections of Tauranga's Takitimu Drive are being dug up and replaced after deficiencies were discovered in the quality of the new road.
The problem with the pavements laid by the Auckland-based contractor was revealed yesterday when Cr Mike Baker questioned why work meant to take three weeks was taking nearly eight weeks.
Council city transportation manager Hennie Roux told yesterday's transportation taskforce meeting that there were very fine tolerances in the design for Takitimu Drive and there had been a problem with the pavements that were laid, including grading and thickness.
"I have never seen a road tested so much," he said of the holes drilled into the road to test the new structural layers.
Mr Roux said the contractor was a highly reputable firm and it appeared the problem was related to all the rain that fell when work started.
He said council and the funder of the works, New Zealand Transport Agency, could not accept compromises in the structure of the road, and so the contractor was replacing all the layers that did not meet specification.
They would rather delay completion than sacrifice quality. With the cost of the rebuild coming out of the pocket of the contractor, Mr Roux said the contractor was "taking a hiding".
It was a very specialised field and he was unable to answer a question about how much the problems had to do with the estuarine sands the road was built on.
"I have not been involved in the engine room of the structural layers."
Mr Roux said the other tenders for the contract had been within 5 to 10 per cent of the winning price.
The contractor was also the winning tenderer for the Cameron Rd reconstruction and widening contract, between Barkes Corner and Pooles Rd. The price was a 36 per cent less than the council's estimate of $1.54 million.
Mr Roux defended their engineer's estimate for the job, saying it was based on the tariffs of previous tenders. Tenders were generally coming in 25 to 35 per cent below estimates because contractors were sharpening their pencils in the recession.
He agreed to provide Cr Hayden Evans with a geo-technical report to prove the need to rebuild the road.
Cr Murray Guy said he was more concerned about ratepayers' ability to pay and questioned the impact if council had chosen to delay the works.
He said it had led to three months of hell at the same time as another of the city's main roads, Takitimu Drive, was also being rebuilt.
Mr Roux said there was a risk from delaying maintenance works, such as potholes, although he did not think there would have been major issues if they had postponed.
However, it would have meant a wave of expenditure in the future and pulling in spending meant council would not be doing its part in getting the economy going again.
Council had also got very good value for money by putting the job out to tender when it did, Mr Roux said.
"If you don't do it now, it will cost more later on."
When the bus shelter had been installed on Cameron Rd, it was on the assumption that it would have been a normal road rehabilitation job. At that time, no one thought they would be widening the road, he said.
Mayor Stuart Crosby said it was better to sacrifice a bus stop and do the job properly.
Nearly half the $980,000 upgrade of Cameron Rd was being funded by New Zealand Transport Agency, with the rest from rates.
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