Building bonanza for Dunedin
BOOM. It has been highlighted before but it is worth revisiting: what a significant period is approaching for Dunedin as a city and as a construction base.
The bigticket items are racking up. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested. Jobs are being created. It is arguably the modern version of a gold rush.
Top of the pile, obviously, is the new Dunedin Hospital build, the biggest project — and talking point — this city will experience for an awfully long time. At $1.4 billion, it will be the largest hospital build in New Zealand history, and come 2028 or so, after a staggered opening process, Dunedin will have the finest hospital in the land. Hopefully, by then, people in the South will be getting the treatment they require in a timely manner.
Close by, the University of Otago this week announced plans for a new hall of residence, a $90 million college on the corner of Albany and Forth Sts. The 450bed college is scheduled to be operational for the 2023 academic year. Great news for students who want more accommodation options, and for a university wondering how to cope with a growing roll.
But wait, there’s more.
The NZ Transport Agency has finalised the $25 million contract to complete the State Highway 88 cyclist and pedestrian shared path, and there are ideas for both the waterfront development and central city revitilisation.
Arthur St School is to be rebuilt for $10 million. The Accident Compensation Corporation is planning a new building for its expanded workforce. At some stage, the Otago Regional Council will stop investigating options for a new headquarters in Dunedin and actually build something. And, the ongoing push for more housing to service Dunedin’s growth continues in the background.
Add in the major central city project in Invercargill, and relentless development in Queenstown and Wanaka, and the full buildingboom picture becomes clear.
This does, of course, raise some major issues.
As hospital build chief Pete Hodgson put it, the area is set for a ‘‘serious labour shortage’’. The South simply does not have the manpower needed for so many projects at once.
The hospital build group is well under way with its planning to recruit, attract and train more workers. Others will need to get similarly proactive.
What of the disruption to the public while these projects are being completed? Unavoidable, really. Even with mitigation, the scale of the hospital build, in particular, means there will be significant impact on those travelling in and around the area.
How will housing and infrastructure keep up? That is a wildcard, and something the new Dunedin mayor and council must keep on top of in the coming years.
It won’t — it can’t — go perfectly smoothly, but this is a momentous era for the city.
AND ANOTHER THING
Nervous, anyone?
It feels like it has been a relatively stable period for All Black fans, but the emotional barometer is about to go haywire.
Tonght’s Rugby World Cup semifinal in Japan is, most can agree, far from a sure thing. England is big, strong, motivated and confident. And Eddie Jones and his senior men will believe they can win.
The All Blacks are far from hot favourites. But if they play well, they should earn a crack at a third straight world title.