Construction resumes, firms welcome support
this position before. It’s going to be a new experience and there’s going to be some inefficiencies until we all adapt.
‘‘We’re lucky because most of our sites are large. We’ve closed down our site offices and facilities to mitigate potential risks as much as possible.’’
Whitcher said the company had not needed to make anyone redundant across all its business regions and the business outlook was promising, at least in the short to medium term.
‘‘The real challenge is future pipeline ahead. We primarily only do large commercial and industrial projects. What has helped us is that we have just come out of a record year with 40 per cent growth. We have focused heavily on maintaining and growing relationships which has resulted in a great year for us.’’
Livingstone has a number of large projects in Hamilton under way, including the new Waikato Regional Council headquarters on the Ward, Bryce and Tristram streets corners, and the Bupa
Foxbridge retirement project in Te Rapa.
Foster Construction director and commercial manager Leonard Gardner said the company was paying particular attention to the rules around level 3, including cleanliness and social distancing. It had lost what would be a normal month’s work as a
Colin Mitchell, Mitchell Construction result of the Covid shutdown but
2020 had been a good year and
2021 was also shaping up well. He would not be drawn on specific projects ahead but said they included a few larger jobs and there was plenty of activity around the Waikato.
Foster Construction has about
110 staff and had taken up the Government’s wage support offer. It had not had to make anyone redundant, he said.
Meanwhile the redevelopment of the Hamilton Airport Terminal is on hold while the airport company re-evaluates its options, said Waikato Regional Airport Ltd chief executive Mark Morgan.
The Covid shutdown, including the closure of New Zealand’s borders to all but returning New Zealand citizens, had resulted in an almost complete cessation of international arrivals at all entry points and has also affected regional airports.
Hamilton Airport had planned a more than $10m refurbishment and structural upgrade of its terminal building, the first major work since the mid 1990s.
‘‘We expect to form a view in the next few months. We are continuing with our property development [in the airport company’s surrounding industrial precincts] and will begin construction of stage 2 on the southern precinct by the end of May to allow for the title and settlement of land agreements early next year.
‘‘We still intend to commence construction of stage 4 on our central precinct in early spring of 2020. Again this will allow title and settlement of several lots. It will also give the Airport Company several ‘lots on the shelf’ for sale. While inquiries have understandably slowed [during the Covid crisis], there is still interest in land at the airport and we expect this to gradually strengthen again in coming months as things shakedown,’’ Morgan said.
‘‘Jacinda said ‘pay your workers and pay your bills’ and they backed us and that gave us and our workers security.’’