Analysis: Why Transmission Gully finally opening isn't the end of the road

ANALYSIS:

Transmission Gully may be open, but it will be another year before the road is actually finished. Furthermore, parties behind the scenes are yet to resolve the latest claim from the builder for more money.

Recent focus has rightfully been on the fact the $1.25 billion motorway out of Wellington is ready for people to drive on. Ngāti Toa blessed the road, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern cut the ribbon, and Transmission Gully opened to motorists yesterday.

Yet, just a few months ago parts of the road were being ripped up to repair construction defects including flawed chipseal, and water seeping through its surface.

When asked this week whether he was confident the road wouldn't have to be closed in a few months' time for further repairs, Transport Minister Michael Wood said there was no information at this time to suggest that.

"We have opened this road at a point that we understand that is safe and appropriate to do so. As I say, with any project of this size there may be issues that occur, but we have processes to deal with that."

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency transport services general manager Brett Gliddon said he hoped the road would not have to close.

"I can never be 100 per cent confident, but I can't on any road that we're opening- that's no different. There are always defects on a road.

"But I'm really confident that we've gone through all the paperwork, and we've looked at all the defects that we know about to date, and we've got a road that's ready to open and is safe."

Having to close the road soon after it has opened really would be the crowning irony for the nightmare that has been Transmission Gully. Parties are all too aware that is exactly what happened to the nearby Kāpiti expressway, which had to be resealed after leaks were discovered.

Transmission Gully being open in time for the Easter break, school holidays and the return of tourists to New Zealand didn't happen by magic.

It was made possible because Waka Kotahi agreed to defer some quality assurance tests until after the opening, and reduced the requirements for others.

Until recently, Waka Kotahi has been adamant all of the 100 contractually required safety and quality assurance tests must be completed before the road could open.

But at the end of last month only 46 of them had been accepted by an independent reviewer as meeting the required standards.

Transmission Gully will cut peak travel times in and out of the capital by 7 to 15 minutes in each direction. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Gliddon told the Herald that had the tests not been deferred and reduced, it would have been "several more months" before the road could open.

Considering that timeframe, there is a lot left to do even though people have started driving on the road.

"A lot of things are going to be off the alignment," Gliddon said.

"Some of them are just paperwork, some of them are tests, some of them are tidying up a whole lot of bits and pieces around the contract."

Waka Kotahi has made assurances none of the deferred tests will compromise public safety, as they relate to ensuring the long-term quality of the road.

Furthermore, to get the road open, Waka Kotahi resorted to "instructing the contractor" to open it by way of a change notice. This only happened after parties had failed to agree on an early-access arrangement during negotiations.

Transmission Gully has been built through a public-private partnership (PPP), the Wellington Gateway Partnership (WGP), with CPB Contractors and HEB Construction subcontracted to carry out the design and construction.

There's also another party involved called Ventia, the company that will operate and maintain the motorway for 25 years after it's completed.

It is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the road and carrying out any repairs. That could be anything from fixing damage to the median barriers, to carrying out rehabilitation works and resealing to maintain the road in a good operating condition.

So you can see why Ventia might have a problem with Waka Kotahi wanting to open the road without all the quality assurance tests being signed off.

Gliddon confirmed this week that Ventia had raised concerns about Waka Kotahi's direction and the tests being deferred.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency transport services general manager Brett Gliddon. Photo / Mark Mitchell

But he said Waka Kotahi has worked closely with Ventia over the past six weeks and the company was now "fully behind" the opening.

"I think we've resolved a lot of their initial concerns, but there's still more work to do to get the road to its final completed state over the next 12 months, but they'll work with us along with the builder to do that."

Wood said the nature of the PPP was badly set up under the previous Government and has made relationships between parties more complicated than they needed to be.

"I'm confident that Waka Kotahi has behaved appropriately," Wood said.

It would be fair to say the relationship between the parties is strained at best. While they have been working together to get the road open this week, they are also wrangling over the fallout of last year's Delta outbreak that sent the country into lockdown.

Gliddon confirmed a claim has been lodged, meaning the road will cost taxpayers more than $1.25b by the time it's settled.

"To be perfectly honest, all the parties have sort of parked that over the recent weeks. We were very much focused on getting the road open because we knew that was the most important thing.

"So we'll pick that up and we'll have to work through the entitlement of that claim and we'll do that over the coming months and make sure that we get value for the taxpayer and whatever we agree is the right, fair amount for the impact that Covid had on them."

Gliddon could not provide a timeline for when that claim might be resolved.

Asked whether it was difficult working together to get the road open while the parties were yet to settle the claim behind the scenes, Gliddon said it has been a "challenging" contract.

He also said everyone has always been committed to having a safe and high-quality road.

"I think all the parties fundamentally want the same thing, but when you add in the commercial nature of the contract and everyone's commercial positions, then it makes for a challenging conversation.

"But we're really pleased that we're being able to at least get to the point where we can open the road and it no longer has to sit here and not be used."

This PPP, which has been described as "botched" from the get-go, is far from over. In fact, it's got 25 years left in it yet.

The road is open, but this won't be the last time Transmission Gully hits the headlines.