A bridge too far, or can it be descoped?

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The 1000-Year Walk Bridge planned to connect the Puhi Kai Iti/Cook Landing Site to Titirangi maunga over Rakaiatane Road looks set for the too-hard basket, with no additional funds forthcoming for this project where estimated costs have doubled to $6.9 million.

An activities update for councillors for their final meeting of the year yesterday had a short note on the bridge in a section on external funding applications:

“Numerous bids to apply for external funds to meet the shortfall of the 1000-Year Walk Bridge over the year have been unsuccessful. We have currently exhausted all potential options. Without the ability to progress the project at this stage, we are unable to meet our obligations to the Lotteries Significant Projects under the funding agreement.” A separate report would “outline the request to withdraw from the contract and the remaining $2.6m grant”.

At yesterday's meeting, where the signalled report was not on the agenda, councillor Larry Foster said the “health and safety issues of not having a bridge at that site are huge”. He asked if the project could be descoped and built with the funds available from Lotteries, “rather than giving it back saying we can't do it, because that seems ridiculous to me. Surely we can build a bridge for $3.5 million.”

The CEO said a paper would be coming on that in the new year.

Originally intended to be built in time for the October 2019 Tuia 250 commemorations, in March last year we were told the project was on hold; detailed design was 85 percent complete and expected costs exceeded the budget.

Construction was then due to get under way in late March this year but was Covid-interrupted. It was once again put on hold when the Government pulled a $5.8m Provincial Growth Fund grant for this project and a multi-use wananga and viewing facility on the summit of Titirangi, as it reprioritised some funding for Covid recovery projects.

That left just the remainder of the Lotteries grant allocated for the bridge, and in April the council applied for a further $3.8m to build it — amongst several applications to the Covid Recovery fund.

That was unsuccessful and an update for the council's operations committee last month said staff were investigating other funding options, and that full project costs to date for the bridge were $755,630. This includes pre-purchased steel, which the council ordered two years ago to avoid anticipated hikes in prices.