Wairoa council grappling with post-cyclone ‘trade-offs’

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

by Ann Revington

Building infrastructure resilience post-cyclone could be under threat with changing NZ Transport Agency-Waka Kotahi funding formulas.

Wairoa District Council Infrastructure and Regulatory committee last month wrestled with the trade-offs required after June and November rain events were added to the ex-tropical Cyclone Gabrielle recovery costs.

Funding applications for reinstatement/repair were in the process of being submitted for Gabrielle and for the June and November weather events.

Once applications were finalised, council costs would be requested as it was anticipated that affordability and prioritisation discussions were needed via the long-term planning discussions.

Council chief executive Kitea Tipuna was concerned about the $40 million cost of Te Reinga Bridge and the funding agreement.

If it was unfunded, what were the conversations around trade-offs, he asked.

With council group manager assets and infrastructure Mike Hardie away, Hira Campbell spoke about the costs of last year’s additional rain events in June ($4.5m) and November ($6m) required for bridge works and drop-outs.

For Gabrielle, there had been an initial funding request at 100 percent funding-assessment rate (FAR) of $16,175,000, which was the expenditure to date.

With a cost-scope adjustment request this became $31,852,549.

The expenditure at December 31, was $16,887,887.

“We have to come up with our share of what that is going to be — and where we get that is another story.”

Mr Tipuna spoke about the funding assessment rates, saying there was 75 percent FAR, enhanced (95 percent FAR) and bespoke (100 percent FAR).

“It is important that we maintain these and the local share for us is going to be big.

“Anything less than 98 percent, we would be struggling, I think.”

Independent infrastructure consultant Chris Olsen asked if they were going to renew their maintenance contract.

“Everywhere they are increasing as much as 40 percent because of the supply chain.

“When you are doing the estimates, make sure you take that into account.”

An existing contract could see a 7-10 percent increase each year.

The risk was the trading-off of levels of service.

“What are the levels of service we are going to trade off — stopping construction?

“We can’t do that because we are in recovery. I will be bringing that to our next meeting to get some guidance around what we think the trade-offs will be.”

Deputy Mayor Denise Eaglesome-Karekare said, “as you say we need to recover. It is going to be hard to find those trade-offs”.

Mr Olsen said the whole country was having to deal with huge cost escalations.

Mr Tipuna said recovery to transport was reinstatement and repair and not resilience, while the deputy mayor said that did not make any sense to her.

Waka Kotahi were changing their policy, Mr Campbell said.

For example, if an upgrade was done in the course of the repair, that policy was in the process of changing, although there was some flexibility.

Councillor Benita Cairns suggested the biggest opportunity was around uneconomic roads.

“When is that coming to the table? Is the expectation that this is going to the long-term plan?”

She said it was not going to come from, for instance,  stopping mowing so many times a week.

Mr Olsen suggested officers identify possible trade-offs and bring them back for discussion.