6 June 2019

From Infrastructure Group Manager Stavros Michael:

"Council undertakes a significant number of infrastructure projects each year. On average some 160 major capital works are completed each year including road resurfacing and a multitude of individual maintenance/asset repair jobs. All of these are projects that fit into the financial allocations made by Council in the Annual Plan.

While some individual jobs may vary from initial estimates for all the reasons described in our previous response, it is important to note that some projects come in under the estimated cost and others may be over but the overall work programme must stay within the funding allocation for that year. So savings made by some works being completed under the estimated cost, compensate for those that go over.

There is a contingency factored into all major construction projects such as bridges, road rehabilitation, water mains, treatment plants, pump stations etc to allow for unforeseen circumstances. The contingency is generally about 10 to 15%.

Emergency restoration works such as the Paradise Valley project have various construction risks by nature. Full and accurate knowledge of ground conditions is not always available or possible before work starts and mitigations specific to site risks develop as the project progresses and conditions become more apparent. Therefore the likelihood of variance between an emergency restoration work estimate and the actual cost of the final job is higher than with other, planned projects.

To provide some context: when the emergency occurred last April a preliminary estimate was drafted to seek funding. The total package of emergency works from that event was originally estimated to cost $6m but the final cost, including the Paradise Valley Road job, will be about $4.5m.

So while the Paradise Valley restoration work cost more than initially estimated, others cost less than initially estimated so the overall programme of works will be finished about 25% under the total estimate (approx. $4.5m instead of the initially estimated $6m).

As with planned works, emergency works must also remain within the overall budget set."

Regarding What other roadworks projects in the Rotorua district have gone over budget and/or have been delayed in the last year? By how much?

This information is not held in an easily accessible form and would take a substantial amount of staff time to gather and collate so we would need to charge you for that time. The information provided by Stavros explains how the financial envelope allocated to roadworks is managed. Let us know if that's sufficient or if you want us to go ahead and provide you with an estimate of time and cost to provide the information as you requested it. As is usual practice, you would then need to pay before the work would be undertaken. As per the Ministry of Justice charging guidelines, our normal practice is to charge $38 per half hour or part thereof. Please let us know if you wish to proceed on this basis or if the information you already have is sufficient.

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Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Speed limits

Reporter working on story re speed limits to which council responded yesterday (refer to yesterday's Heads Up) sent further questions relating to the NZTA maps with suggested speed limits for Rotorua. Questions were:

- Could I please have a comment on the proposed "safe and appropriate" speeds versus actual speed of the roads? A large proportion of Rotorua roads in and around the CBD are being recommended to be 40km/h.

-Will the council be adhering to these 40km/h guidelines? Why/why not and how soon can the public expect any changes, if any?

-Will the council ahere to any of the other NZTA safe recommendations?

From Infrastructure Group Manager Stavros Michael:

"While the NZTA maps provide a guideline, it's important we are informed by our own specific requirements and environments.

"Safe and appropriate" needs to take various factors into consideration including the operating environment (i.e. rural open road, or residential area, school areas or business district with high pedestrian presence) and assessing actual speeds. Where actual speed is significantly higher than current or intended limits, we need to undertake engineering work to slow traffic and this could involve works like road narrowing speed humps or kerb extensions.

A review of Rotorua's CBD will take place during the next six months and in a CBD 30km/h is now often considered to be most appropriate because that's more consistent with the density of pedestrian activity and would greatly reduce the level of risk and severity of injuries and accidents. This is something we will need to consider.

Alongside the CBD review we will also be undertaking reviews of other areas, especially around schools."

Additional note to reporter:

Just something to be careful of when you are writing your story please - in your questions this morning you refer to "actual speed of the roads" which I assume refers to current speed limit?

The phrase "actual speeds" (which Stavros has referred to in his responses) is the term that refers to the actual speeds that people drive as opposed to the speed limit ie it relates to actual driver behaviour rather than to the posted speed limit. It will be important to make the distinction so your readers don't get confused.

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Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Kiwi Can first birthday

I'm working on a story around the celebration of Kiwi Can Rotorua's first birthday celebration last night, and when I had a chat to Sir Graeme Dingle this morning he mentioned that he and Steve Chadwick had agreed to come up with a plan to make an effort to help cut down the generally negative youth statistics.

Would it be possible to get a few comments from Steve Chadwick on the following to go with the story:

- What sorts of ideas/topics her and Graeme Dingle were discussing at the celebration? Is there anything in particular that is looking to be set in motion?

- Why she thinks it is important to help change negative youth statistics?

From Rotorua Mayor Steve Chadwick:

Sir Graeme Dingle and I discussed a range of things including our real concerns about youth engagement with an education pathway and the hard to budge NEET (youth not in employment, education or training) statistics locally, family violence reporting and suicide rates.

He is keen to be involved with a local leadership group and sees great potential for Kiwi Can as one solution. He liked the focus of our Child Equity project with Sunset Primary School and expressed potential for this to be extended.

Sir Graeme is an inspiring leader who obviously has a real impact in getting stuff done. He expressed great pleasure in turning around those who are struggling to find the curriculum relevant and are at risk of drifting away and becoming a statistic.

I believe it would be of great value for him to meet the Working Together group, which provides cooperative responses to addressing community issues and needs.

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Media: Stuff
Topic: Burial costs

National reporter from Stuff sought confirmation that info re costs for burials in Rotorua which appear on the council website (HERE), dated 2015, are still current.

Council confirmed that the costs as per the website were still current.