We are just here to build stuff – new Ōtākaro boss
exactly why the deal fell over.
Meanwhile, groundworks contractor March Menard Joint Venture on Thursday took possession of the site, bounded by Moorhouse, Antigua and St Asaph streets, with work to install about 7500 in-ground stone columns scheduled to start in the last week of August.
They will install about a dozen columns to be tested, causing installation work to pause for a few weeks, before ramping up from late September.
Bridgman said the build contractor was expected to be physically on site early next year.
He said the project was well defined and well scoped.
‘‘These projects never go without a hitch, I’m sure there will be something, but it’s well shaped to progress to plan from here.’’
The Government reviewed the project earlier this year, which included looking at combining it with a stadium, before confirming a trimmed-back version would go ahead. Cosmetic changes and an altered contract process had reportedly carved at least $50m from the total price. At the April announcement, officials said earthworks were expected to begin within 10 weeks – a timeframe which has already passed. Some minor ground work has been done so some of the space can be used as a hospital staff carpark of 170 spaces, which will start operating in the next few weeks.
The risk profiles for Government contracts on vertical construction projects has been called into question recently following the collapse of Hawkins, the receivership of Ebert and withdrawal of Fletchers from the vertical construction sector.
The Government has promised a ‘‘reset’ for the troubled industry, which includes a pledge to stop low-balling companies for projects.
Auckland University of Technology professor of construction management John Tookey said Government projects could be risky because they tended to be large, run for a number of years, and involve a large number of different trades and sub-contractors, some of whom could be in short supply.
He said the Government was keen on transferring risks to the contractor but contractors tended to be poorly capitalised, so it did not take much for them to get into a cashflow crisis.
This could be a problem for the Government if the contractor went under forcing a re-tender of the contract, potentially causing a cost blowout, and introducing confusion over liability for work already done.
Tookey said that in a design and build contract, the contractor carried the design risk. They had to figure out the best way to meet client specifications while still making money.
With build only, the contractor could ‘‘wash their hands of any responsibility’’ if things went wrong by blaming poor design.
Ōtākaro's new boss just wants to get on and build the Christchurch anchor projects.
John Bridgman said it’s not more complicated than that – ‘‘we’re just here to build stuff’’.
He thinks the staff and systems at the Crown rebuild company have it well placed to do so.
‘‘I come out of a Fortune 500 company and the systems they’ve got here are simpler, easier, more user friendly than what I’m used to.’’ Bridgman, a qualified engineer, has most recently come from Melbourne where he was a senior executive at global infrastructure building company AECOM.
Bridgman said Ōtākaro’s top job appealed as a way of contributing to the rebuild of Christchurch. ‘‘The opportunity to continue to stay in New Zealand, provide a real contribution here, bring the talents I’ve got to some effect and still be part of New Zealand was really compelling.’’
Bridgman has stepped in at the front end of the metro sports facility build, which will be watched closely by the public due to its rocky past. The $300m build has been significantly delayed, most recently when the design and build contractor Leighs Cockram Joint Venture was axed over a $75m budget blowout in November, after which the Government reviewed and trimmed back the project.
But Bridgman isn’t worried by the project’s history – ‘‘the past is just that, the past’’ – and thinks the venture is now well defined and scoped.
‘‘These projects never go without a hitch, I’m sure there will be something, but it’s well shaped to progress to plan from here.’’
Wellington-born Bridgman was schooled in Auckland, gaining a Bachelor of Engineering in civil engineering at Auckland University. His career has taken him around the globe, working throughout Asia, including Indonesia and the Philippines; London and Australia.
He said this type of travel was not atypical of engineers because ‘‘it’s hard to take the project to the person’’. It means he’s not worried about the idea of O¯ ta¯ karo wrapping up in the future, when its role in the rebuild is over.
‘‘The very nature of engineering is that projects all come to an end at some point ... There will always be other opportunities after this.
‘‘My job is to knock all these projects off and get the place tidied up, and all completed and handed over. Then I go find something else to do.’’
Some of his career highlights include working as design manager on the 50-kilometre,
£9 billion (NZ$17.3b) channel tunnel between England and France, and as design director on the
A$3.2b (NZ$3.5b) tunnel which runs under the Brisbane River.
In New Zealand, Bridgman has been involved in Wellington’s Transmission Gully and the Waterview tunnel in Auckland.
While his CV shows his background is more in the realms of horizontal infrastructure, he pointed out his experience in building hospitals in Wellington, and his work with the Sydney Metro involved ‘‘building a railway station, and a 60-storey building on top of it’’.
Outside work, Bridgman’s life is busy with family, the outdoors, rugby and rowing.