An end to Town Basin headaches in sight

It's taken 15 weeks longer than expected. But if the figures are to be believed, it cost $321,000 more than it was supposed to - and the Whangarei District Council is satisfied the delays and extra costs are legitimate.
Work on the $8million re-alignment of the Town Basin roading network in Whangarei and construction of a Victoria Bridge extension started in December and was due to finish at the beginning of August.
The bridge finally opened to all traffic on Saturday and contractor Fulton Hogan has until November 17 to finish the entire project before the company will incur penalty payments for a late finish.
District council roading manager Jeff Devine said the 15.6-week delay in completing the project - and extra costs of $321,000 - were legitimate under the contract for the work. That pushes the total cost to just under $8.5 million, provided there are no more hiccups.
The contract was let to Fulton Hogan on November 1 for $8,132,254. Work not in the original contract - upgrading the entrances to Ewing and Vale roads - worth $150,000 was then added. The cost of repairing unforeseen problems in the roading, such as services not marked on maps and landscaping, added to the overall cost.
Mr Devine said the contract was for the project to be finished by August 1. The contract also allowed for 18 working days to be lost because of rain.
He said the contract was on a "shared risk" basis where the contractor and council split the risk of any unforeseen problems.
As part of that there were a number of "critical paths" - crucial steps that had to be completed before other parts of the contract could be done. If the critical paths were not met because of unforeseen circumstances there would be no penalty to the contractor.
Mr Devine said Fulton Hogan claimed for 21 extra wet-weather days. The contractor also claimed 55 lost days caused by workers coming across underground services that were not shown on maps.
The services, such as water mains and power cables, had to be removed, relocated or fixed.
"That area is one of the oldest parts of town that has been revamped several times over the years. It appears that a lot of services the authorities had put down or disconnected have not been recorded."
He said nobody could be held liable for services not appearing on official records and the costs associated with finding them could not be recovered.
Mr Devine said the unforeseen problems had not cost ratepayers money, but the cost to them had been in terms of 15 weeks of delays in getting the project finished.
Two underground cavities discovered at the city end of Victoria Bridge had to be repaired and also cost two extra days.
Mr Devine said in all Fulton Hogan had legitimately claimed an extra 78 working days, meaning the company had until November 17 to finish the project, including landscaping - unless it can claim more lost days in the meantime. "In terms of the contract the consultant engineer has agreed these claims are valid," he said.
Mr Devine said if a fixed-price contract had been entered into for the project, it would have cost ratepayers far more as the tendered price would rise to take into account possible unforeseen problems.
He said risk-sharing was standard for most contracts of such a nature. In hindsight, if the council was doing the contract again, it could have put in a tighter construction deadline, Mr Devine said. He said the Fulton Hogan tender was the best one the council received for the job and provided the shortest construction period. None of the tenders involved working on the project 24 hours a day.
Despite the delays, the council was happy with the quality of work and Mr Devine was confident the new layout would solve traffic problems it was designed to alleviate. The bridge was designed to accommodate 25 years worth of traffic growth. Seven sets of traffic lights in the area had been replaced by two, while a four-lane exit of the bridge into town should also help traffic flow.
* END OF THE ROAD • The contract for the Town Basin roading project was let to Fulton Hogan on November 1, last year.
• The work was to start in December and finish on August 1.
• Fulton Hogan has until November 17 - 15 weeks after the completion date - to finish the entire project before time penalties are imposed.
• The company has claimed 55 working days were lost because of underground services that were not on official records.
• It claimed 39 days were lost because of foul weather - 18 lost weather days were allowed in the contract.
• Fulton Hogan also claimed two days were lost because underground cavities were discovered in the Victoria Bridge abutments.
• The bridge extension was finally fully opened on Saturday.
• At times the roadworks caused the 10-minute trip to Whangarei from Onerahi to stretch out to an hour for morning peak-hour traffic.
• Nobody will be made to pay for the delays.
* The last bits to be done
Work still to be done on the Town Basin roading re-alignment:
• Traffic lights and water main work outside old NRC building - by the weekend.
• Corner of Ewing/Vale Rds - within two weeks, but may need Riverside Dr to be down to one lane at times.
• Pavement forming - during the next two weeks.
• Landscaping - in next two weeks.
• Council roading manager Jeff Devine said the new bridge seemed to be working well in improving traffic flows.