Construction boom affects council work
A booming construction industry has forced the region’s council to delay its tendering of projects as it struggles to find contractors.
At a works and infrastructure meeting, Nelson city councillors heard ‘‘fewer and fewer’’ contractors were tendering for council projects.
Staff had spoken with Civil Contractors New Zealand and had been advised contractors were ‘‘extremely busy’’ and in some cases wouldn’t be able to tender for work until April or May next year.
A suggestion was made to make the timeframes for the work more flexible.
‘‘Not suggesting the work takes longer than it should, it would take the same amount of time, but we’d give the contractor the ability to programme that within a time that better suits them, and that they can price more competitively,’’ council officer Shane Davies said.
If staff needed to move a project beyond a financial year they would come back to the council and seek approval, he said.
Group manager of infrastructure Alec Louverdis said it was mostly civil works that were facing potential delays.
‘‘Generally it seems to be infrastructure projects such as roading, stormwater, water supply and wastewater that are affected.’’
Councillors were also told that tenders had been coming back, in some instances, with higher prices than anticipated, leading council staff to negotiate or re-tender the projects.
Malcolm Edridge of Edridge Contracting, who is chairman of the Nelson Marlborough branch of Civil Contractors New Zealand, said con- struction work across the top of the South Island was booming. This was due to a number of factors including demand in Kaiko¯ura following the earthquake, and civil contracting work on the alternative SH1 route from Picton to Christchurch.
‘‘That’s soaked up a lot of resources and also in general, the Nelson private sector market, so that’s the subdivision [work], has been very busy,’’ Edridge said.
He said 18 months ago, the council’s work was a bit late in coming out to tender, and there also wasn’t a lot of it, so when private work boomed, contractors grabbed it.
‘‘Now the council work is coming on behind it and the resources are tighter than what they have been.’’
The industry could handle the workload, but would need flexibility from the council. Pricing was higher than 18 months ago as the market had picked up.
‘‘The councils have this deadline of the end of their financial year that they need to work to, but that doesn’t always work in for a contractor’s timeframe and by this time of year … by the time they tender it and let it, it’s very close to Christmas.’’
Tasman District Council spokesperson Chris Choat said it was also having difficulties, and were taking a similar approach.
They were building flexibility into contracts’ timeframes to ensure contractors had the resources to complete projects to a high standard.
Council staff and Edridge agreed the pinch on labour and resources was a temporary situation, with Edridge referring to it as a ‘‘blip’’.