Work already under way at Te Kaha site
Land is already being dug up on the mammoth site for Christchurch’s planned $683 million multipurpose stadium, just a day after city leaders voted to push on with the hotly debated project.
‘‘Now the next phase of hard work begins,’’ the project’s independent chairperson, Barry Bragg, said. ‘‘We are confident we’ve got a high-calibre, highly experienced team in place to deliver this.’’
Yesterday morning, diggers and loaders were already excavating soft spots across the three-block site – part of work to prepare the ground for construction, which was approved earlier in the year.
At the site, Bragg explained how the stadium’s top row of seats would be about the same height as the eight-storey former Inland Revenue building that neighbours it. The roof would go even higher.
He also pointed out small posts in the distance, outlining where the superstructure will be built.
The plan is to start construction of the bowl-style seating in the southwest, at the intersection of Tuam and Madras streets. Two crews will then work simultaneously to build the seats on either side of the pitch, until the crews meet in the northeast by the intersection of Cashel and Barbadoes streets.
The roof will then be built on top to hold it all together.
Some 300 to 400 construction workers will be working on the project at its peak.
All of this planning was transformed from a possibility to a certainty this week, when Christchurch City councillors voted 13-3 to push on with the work.
The downside is that the council has to fork out an extra $150m.
Sara Templeton, Celeste Donovan and Melanie Coker voted against spending this money, saying it would be a financial burden.
It is set to bump up rates and take the city closer to its debt limits.
Bragg, who heads the board that councillors set up to independently govern the project, said his focus in the past six weeks was negotiating the final stadium contract.
Just days out from Thursday’s decision, Bragg’s board and the chosen stadium contractor BESIX Watpac secured that contract as a fixed price.
The contract also put the majority of risks on the shoulders of the contractor, rather than ratepayers.
The contract has been verified by law firm Simpson Grierson. That work was led by partner Michael
Weatherall, who Bragg described as ‘‘one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent construction lawyers’’.
The stadium’s independent assurance manager, Peter Neven, told city councillors on Thursday it was ‘‘a very good contract in this market’’ – referring to the problems caused by Covid-19, China’s lockdowns, and the war in Ukraine.
Bragg said he was grateful that city councillors had made a clear decision.
A lot of preparation had gone into the next phase of the project, but he said: ‘‘With all due respect, we’ve been on hold waiting for [the council] decision.’’
Now the decision had been made, he wanted to provide more information about accessibility and the sustainability of the stadium, and work closer with stakeholders – especially on the final design stage, which would, among other things, determine the stadium’s colours, he said.
‘‘All of those conversations have been on pause, partly because [stakeholders] don’t want to talk about it unless they believe this is real. ‘‘Now we can get into it.’’ Detailed design work will continue for the rest of the year, concurrent to the site works. Crews are already digging out soft spots in the ground and undertaking archaeological digs.
Work to improve the ground quality is set to start about midSeptember, while foundations will start going in some time in November. People can expect to see the bowlstyle seating coming up and out of the ground in the middle of next year.