Transmission Gully progress towards opening

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Smpl Mnmlst
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#2832903 15-Dec-2021 15:32

frankv:

jamesrt:

how would we know?

You would drive up the new road 3km and then come to a 90 degree turn to the right and then 500m on a 90 degree turn to the left.

… or it would be like Apple Maps 2012:

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

jamesrt

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#2833400 16-Dec-2021 12:38

NZ Herald claims faulty chipseal causing the delay [behind paywall, haven't read article]

PolicyGuy

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#2833404 16-Dec-2021 12:54

jamesrt:

NZ Herald claims faulty chipseal causing the delay [behind paywall, haven't read article]

Covered free to access by RNZ at https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/457984/attempts-to-fix-transmission-gully-made-it-worse-reports-show

MikeB4

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#2833418 16-Dec-2021 13:16

It's a pity that John Clark (Fred Dagg) and Billy T James have left us, the continuing saga of Transmission Gully would have been rich pickings for them.

Dratsab

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#2833462 16-Dec-2021 14:07

wellygary: To my reading, its the company saying we did our bit on time... its the slowness of the regulators and councils holding it up....

And councils are saying a whole heap of consent applications haven't been completed and filed - they can't process what they don't have. Classic finger pointing exercise.

insane

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#2833530 16-Dec-2021 14:43

mattwnz:

I wonder how quickly they would have built it in China. It does feel like they have been building it for a very long time.

I have no exp with Chinese built roads (that I know of), but lived half my life overseas and driven in a number of countries in similar climates and never come across new roads with surfaces like ours here. Perhaps labour costs etc make it impractical to build proper foundations for roads here, but I'm always amazed at how quick the surfaces appear to degrade and require levelling, patching or cracks to be filled.

Just looking at the fence railings in some of those photo's linked to in the Flickr album shows a total lack of pride in workmanship or perhaps no meaningful governance. In my world, if an IT vendor delivered something like that to me, I'd be pulling them up on that to be fixed, even if after launch.

It's tough, on the one hand you want to call in crews/consortiums from overseas that do this day in and day out, and possibly for less money, but then that doesn't provide skilled labour opportunities, so long term you shoot yourself in the foot. Maybe we need to second some of our road engineers and construction workers overseas to work on jobs to learn valuable skills which they can then bring back (assuming they come back).

Makes you nervous each time you drive over one of those new bridges... have they put the same level of engineering into the bridge as the road surface?

wellygary

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#2833551 16-Dec-2021 15:33

insane:

I have no exp with Chinese built roads (that I know of), but lived half my life overseas and driven in a number of countries in similar climates and never come across new roads with surfaces like ours here. Perhaps labour costs etc make it impractical to build proper foundations for roads here, but I'm always amazed at how quick the surfaces appear to degrade and require levelling, patching or cracks to be filled.

Just looking at the fence railings in some of those photo's linked to in the Flickr album shows a total lack of pride in workmanship or perhaps no meaningful governance. In my world, if an IT vendor delivered something like that to me, I'd be pulling them up on that to be fixed, even if after launch.

It's tough, on the one hand you want to call in crews/consortiums from overseas that do this day in and day out, and possibly for less money, but then that doesn't provide skilled labour opportunities, so long term you shoot yourself in the foot. Maybe we need to second some of our road engineers and construction workers overseas to work on jobs to learn valuable skills which they can then bring back (assuming they come back).

Makes you nervous each time you drive over one of those new bridges... have they put the same level of engineering into the bridge as the road surface?

The master contractor is CPB HEB, they are a joint Venture between CPB ( a subsidiary of Australia's CIMIC) and HEB ( a subsidiary of French multi national Vinci). so there were plenty of Non-NZers working on the project ...but then COVID came and many left for home and did not return....

Also its a PPP so there is not a handover to NZTA now, the PPP partner operates and maintains the road for the next 25 years, then hands it to the NZ Govt...

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

floydbloke

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#2834834 17-Dec-2021 10:39

Sir Brian Roche reporting to Select Committee:

Waka Kotahi still did not have a clear understanding of when the road will open, Roche said.

"It's something that we're working through. Our objective remains, as we've stated publicly, to get it open as soon as we possibly can and as early as we can in 2022."

Brown asked whether that could be before Easter. Roche replied: "It could be".

Full article with further discussion on LD payments and more.

It doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

martyyn

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#2834835 17-Dec-2021 10:44

Tools have definitely been downed on the PP2O section.

I haven't seen a single worker on the ground or machine actually moving for over a week. You can't tell me there isn't a single thing that can't be done on the 10km stretch I drive past multiple times a day.

I imagine TG is the same right now.

Bung

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#2835217 18-Dec-2021 09:34

Last news I saw about PP20 had it opening late 2022 so it isn't as if there is any urgency with that one. They might try redeeming the late Trans Gully with an early opening of the next stage but nothing seems to have been said.

martyyn

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#2835223 18-Dec-2021 09:43

It's not about urgency, it's about doing the job. If things can be done now, why are we waiting until the end of 2022?

If I told my customers it would take years to do a project they desperately needed and they saw me sitting around for most of that doing nothing I'm pretty sure they would be asking questions.

I just don't understand how a 15km stretch of road, on the flat, nothing to demolish first, with two bridges can take so long to build.

But then I see nothing happening on it for weeks on end and I wonder just how badly the whole project is being run.

MikeB4

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#2835234 18-Dec-2021 11:16

@martyyn Transmission Gully is 27kms and has 25 structures. It has been built in a challenging fault ridden area with vary soil and rock types. It is one of the largest civil works undertaken in Aotearoa in very challenging times.

martyyn

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#2835235 18-Dec-2021 11:17

I'm taking about PP2O @mikeb4.

Bung

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#2835246 18-Dec-2021 12:49

martyyn: I just don't understand how a 15km stretch of road, on the flat, nothing to demolish first, with two bridges can take so long to build.

"The 13km, four-lane expressway, which started construction in 2017, has been delayed before due to changes to the project.

These included building a 10km shared path (for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders) alongside the expressway and upgrading the surface of the expressway with a new pavement design."

Maybe if they did it in 5km stages they'd finish each one before the design got changed.

PolicyGuy

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#2835256 18-Dec-2021 13:59

The Kapiti - Horowhenua weather the last couple of weeks has been completely unsuitable for final finishing the road surface and asphalt laying -there's been buckets of rain.
Since they look to be pretty much at that stage, maybe that explains the lack of recent activity.

And of course, now they'll be knocking off for Christmas / New Year holidays.

Another possibility may be that they can't afford to build it too quickly.
In the past, I've heard of NZTA projects where the payment schedule for what was really a nine- to twelve-month job was spread out over fifteen months in three financial years, to allow NZTA to still say they were working on a project, and that it was indeed going to schedule, but not 'break the bank' by spending more than allowed in any one year, the money being spread out on other projects.
I.E. first payment in May or June 20xx (Financial Year 1), some progress payments in July 20xx to June 20xy (FY 2), and the last payments after July 20xy (FY 3). If that's the way the money's coming in, the contractors will be working to a slow cadence that matches the cash flow.

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