Investigation launched to save Tauranga's Harington Street Transport Hub

Construction has stopped on Tauranga's Harington Sreet Transport Hub after issues were found with the structure's foundation. Photo / File

An investigation into issues which have halted Tauranga's $24 million transport hub will not begin until authorities first work out how to save the project.

Tauranga City Council confirmed last week that work on the Harington Street Transport Hub had stopped due to construction problems. This week, a senior council executive has revealed what the council is doing about it.

The facility was expected to include 250 parking spaces for cyclists, 53 for motorbikes, 535 carparks, 15 mobility parks, electric charge points for cars and e-bikes, and showers and lockers, and was expected to be finished early next year.

Today, council general manager of infrastructure Niclas Johansson said there would now be two investigations into the matter: One to establish how best to complete the project, and another to establish liability and remediation.

Tauranga City Council infrastructure manager Niclas Johansson says they will leave 'no stone unturned' in the search for what went wrong with the city's transport hub. Photo / File

Working out options to continue the project was the priority for now, he said.

The investigation into finding a suitable engineering solution has already begun, involving Holmes Consulting and Aurecon consulting. This is expected to be completed in three to four weeks. Finding out the costs of this solution is then expected to take several more weeks.

"Our focus is absolutely moving forward but, at some point, there will be a thorough investigation in terms of liability around this," Johansson said.

"We will leave no stone unturned in terms of that investigation."

Johansson confirmed the council was dealing with "design issues" but, until the investigations were complete, could not say any more.

The council first became aware of potential issues in June when a beam was seen twisting a concrete pour for an unrelated matter.

Construction has stopped on Tauranga's Harington Sreet Transport Hub after issues were found with the structure's foundation. Photo / File

"Then we started to look into it and while looking into it we noticed a few things that were surprising. That led us to investigate a bit further and ask further questions and put further challenges to the design," Johansson said.

Work stopped on the project in September.

The transport hub is loan-funded, not ratepayer-funded. The revenue expected to come from the completed building is expected to help pay off the loan.