Christchurch Metro Sports site - so how will the ground on this site be 'remediated'? It looks difficult, see photos!

Forums › Sports › Christchurch Metro Sports site - so how will the ground on this site be 'remediated'? It looks difficult, see photos!

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#1883608 14-Oct-2017 21:34

k1w1k1d:

Interesting how "fast" government/council projects proceed at compared to what the Russian philanthropist Slava Meyn is achieving with the sports complex he is building.

You are so right! And just look at how quickly things get built in and around the airport. The new KFC only taking a few months to build. The Jucy Hotel went up quickly. The whole of the Spitfire Square shopping area. The Novotel Hotel project has a delay of around two months due to the wrong steel being delivered to the site but that was identified before any was used. The High Performance sports centre was built by Apollo Projects in just over a year.

I must go and have a look at the new QEII & see how that project is coming along. In all likelihood the new QEII Leisure Centre will open for business while they are still driving massive piles into the Metro Sports swamp site. In my view the two projects that have gone smoothly and fairly quickly are the new bus interchange and the Margaret Mahy children's playground.

Metro Sports - the only project that has been 5 years away every year since 2012!

amiga500

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#1885132 17-Oct-2017 14:49

Not a lot to report about the Convention Centre project either. As of today they had a 15 cm pipe gushing water into a storm water drain on the South side close to the tram stop. On the Western side of the site there is a huge pile of gravel or shingle being kept damp with a sprinkler. The amount of water coming out of the sprinkler is nothing like the amount of water coming out of the 15 cm pipe so it seems there may be issues with ground water on this site as well. Apart from that most of the site looks level with some areas filled in with gravel. A digger was working on the N.E. corner. When I viewed the site around lunch time there were only about 5 people on site.

As for construction absolutely nothing as far as I could see. The Convention Centre revised finish date is now 'early 2020'. I don't believe it seeing the Justice Precinct has taken nearly four years & counting.

Meanwhile down Colombo Street the new theatre and restaurant complex is going up real fast with a completion date of Sept. 2018. I think this *is* realistic.

The central CBD is an area of contrasts. The new carpark and supermarket next to the bus exchange went up quickly and efficiently. Yet, right next to this building is the old building that housed the Lichfield Street Dick Smith. This building is finally being renovated after close to seven years sitting idle. The 'Dick Smith' signage on the front was only removed a few weeks ago! And guess what is one of the derelict buildings in this area - the old brick building which housed the Council decades ago! You'd expect this sort of thing to happen had there been no Govt/Council master plan for the CBD & people were just allowed to demolish or build as they saw fit.

Oh well, expect a whole lot of action plans from Jacinda or Bill about April 2020 I guess....

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#1885140 17-Oct-2017 15:01

The puddles are probably Canterbury Draught, mis-identified as water.

Mike

amiga500

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#1885158 17-Oct-2017 15:22

Christchurch readers of the Press brace yourselves for one or more of these headlines soon...

'Christchurch Recovery Minister hires consultants from Venice to advise on Metro site'

'Govt/Council to pay for all future delays due to Metro site ground issues'

'Metro Sports to be built on Airport land alongside two new hotels and parking structures'

Which of those three headlines do you think could be written??

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#1887466 21-Oct-2017 16:22

This article from Price Waterhouse and Coopers gives good insights as to why major NZ contractors may be wary of the Metro site. It seems that delays are very common on many projects & for a company listed on the share market those delays can have a very bad effect on the share price. Although Leighs has been involved in the project it is not listed on their website (yet). And if the major contractors are busy with other good projects in Christchurch and Auckland why would they take a risk doing the Metro? Maybe it is only Fletchers that would have shareholders to worry about, not sure.

https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/capital-projects-infrastructure/pdf/pwc-correcting-the-course-of-capital-projects-v3-pdf.pdf

I shall try to upload another screenshot showing how the 'ponds' looked a few months ago. Note how close to the surface the ground water is. Right now those ponds have been filled in but on the Eastern side water is visible on the surface. And do they really know what is going to happen when those 6000 - 9000 piles are driven into the site & what effect the pile driving operation may have on the springs??

amiga500

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#1889322 25-Oct-2017 14:46

The new QEII is about the only good news story for sports lovers in Christchurch. It's not very easy to get close to the site but it appears to have just about all the roof on & is a hive of activity. Supports for the new hydroslides are up already. Meant to open mid 2018 & with Apollo Projects doing the build I'd believe it. The building is about a 100 metres to the East of where the old QEII was.

Meanwhile today Fletcher Building had a very testy meeting with shareholders with more huge losses announced. I could be completely wrong but I think Fletchers will be unlikely to get involved with the Metro site. If you have a look at the PWC Document and the diagram that explains causes of costly delays - Metro Sports ticks a whole lot of them & that is before construction has even begun. And with a new Government in place will the whole project be under review? Who knows?

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amiga500

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#1893504 1-Nov-2017 10:04

Meanwhile, a new temporary car park has been opened at the south west corner of the site. Signage says for 'DHB Staff and the Public'. I see this as a positive move to provide some desperately needed hospital parking. It appears to be free parking. The park is about 100 metres by about 60 metres.

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#1893626 1-Nov-2017 13:31

amiga500:

Meanwhile, a new temporary car park has been opened at the south west corner of the site. Signage says for 'DHB Staff and the Public'. I see this as a positive move to provide some desperately needed hospital parking. It appears to be free parking. The park is about 100 metres by about 60 metres.

If its free it won't last very long due to abuse. The CDHB has leased several Wilsons carparks near the Hospital and made them exclusively for Hospital staff. The one by my work has never had more than a dozen cars in it since (of a capacity of at least 50) which has pushed parking for staff around here further South. Once word spreads the carpark will be overwhelmed with local workers.

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#1893817 1-Nov-2017 20:27

Some sort of construction has started on the Convention Centre site. At the N.E. corner.

amiga500

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#1899274 11-Nov-2017 15:52

Opening & actual use of the Metro Sports could finish up to be seven years late. In the original 100 day plan put forward in 2012 it was intended to have the Metro Sports opening in early 2016. As of today there is absolutely no sign of work on the site apart from some drainage pipes & something that looks like a giant fire hose! At the western side Orion have installed some electrical supply gear. And that's it.

Let's say they start next week on driving the 4000-6000 50cm to 1 metre diameter piles and it takes all of 2018 to do that. Then four years to build the $300 million sports centre. That would bring us to early 2023 for its opening & use. Maybe four years to build this is being pessimistic but it has taken four years to build the Justice Precinct & the emergency services building is nowhere near to being occupied. The Justice Precinct also cost around $300 million so in dollar terms it is comparable.

As others have commented in The Press Otakaro is only interested in giving out good news stories & are not interested in providing the Public with a realistic time frame of how long each stage of the project will take. I think the real 'elephant in the room' is how long those piles will take to do. They say 4000 -6000 of them but I am sure they were saying 6000-9000 a few months ago.

Officially the word is 'opening in early 2020.' What a joke!!

amiga500

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#1903774 18-Nov-2017 17:11

In today's Press there is a front page story about Megan Woods asking for clarity on CBD projects. Also in today's Press online version there is a comment that 'contractors won't have a bar' of the project due to the site problems. And what about the 4000 - 9000 massive concrete piles each 15 metres long and 50 cm to 1 metre in diameter? How long to get those made? And how many hundred truck loads would that be?

For a while people have been commenting in the Press about contractors not wanting to do this job - it is about time that Otakaro gave a meaningful update about this. In the central city there is an Otakaro display called the 'Spring Update' & surprise surprise the Metro project is not even mentioned!

As of this week the site looks much the same as in October some areas have dried out others have a new pond or two.

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amiga500

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#1903783 18-Nov-2017 17:39

kingjj:

amiga500:

Meanwhile, a new temporary car park has been opened at the south west corner of the site. Signage says for 'DHB Staff and the Public'. I see this as a positive move to provide some desperately needed hospital parking. It appears to be free parking. The park is about 100 metres by about 60 metres.

If its free it won't last very long due to abuse. The CDHB has leased several Wilsons carparks near the Hospital and made them exclusively for Hospital staff. The one by my work has never had more than a dozen cars in it since (of a capacity of at least 50) which has pushed parking for staff around here further South. Once word spreads the carpark will be overwhelmed with local workers.

Now pay parking! Machine installed & white lines painted on the compacted shingle. It was free for a week or two...