The Star: November 18, 2021

The Star Thursday November 18 2021
10
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Suction tank blows out $3.4 million
• By Fiona Ellis
A PRICE hike of $3.4 million on
a long-delayed water storage tank
project in the heart of Fendalton is
being criticised as “far too high”.
The budget for the planned
Jeffreys Reserve project has increased
to $6.02 million, up from
$2.6 million in 2019, the city
council confirmed last week.
Head of Three Waters and
Waste Helen Beaumont said
the increased price tag was due
to the increased scope of the
project.
However,
Fendalton-Waimairi-Harewood
Community
Board member
and Waimairi
Ward councillor
Sam
MacDonald
Sam MacDonald
said he was unhappy
with the
price.
“It just seems an extraordinary
amount of money to have increased
in that amount of time,”
MacDonald said.
The project will see the current
200m3 earthquake-damaged
tank, which supplies water to
the north-west of Christchurch,
replaced with a 500m3 tank.
Beaumont said the additional
scope of the project would include
developing new wells, new
pumps, an increase in tank size,
an electrical upgrade, security
fencing and tank cladding, and
additional planning and design
costs caused by lengthy community
consultation.
“This is a significant project . . .
to increase capacity, improve the
security of supply, and meet the
increased requirements of the
regulatory framework,” Beaumont
said.
Construction is due to start in
March next year, with the city
council currently looking for a
contractor to carry it out.
Planning for the project began
in 2017, with work initially intended
to be completed by June 2018.
The project is now expected to
be completed in March 2023.
Adjusting the design to satisfy
the community board and pausing
the design to learn from the
construction of Bexley’s Ben
Rarere pump was the cause of
the delay, Beaumont said.
MacDonald said the design
was a compromise with the local
community, with residents criticising
earlier conceptions.
“By the nature of this stuff,
you’re never going to please
everybody but at the same time, I
think people began to appreciate
we’d gotten the best compromise
we could,” he said.
PRICE HIKE:
The cost of the
Jeffreys Reserve
water storage tank
project, due to
start next March,
has more
than doubled.
PHOTO: GEOFF
SLOAN ​
“It does prove that the council
is investing properly in its
infrastructure . . . it’s going to be
a long-term asset for the community
to ensure that we have
good water.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m still
not happy with the price.”
The city council declined
to provide a cost breakdown
yesterday, citing commercial
sensitivities.
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