Even with an optimal outcome, it would be difficult to make an economic case for the $120 million that ratepayers of the former Auckland City Council have invested so far in replacing old footpaths with new concrete paths.
If some footpaths were tatty, that hardly seemed the cue for an expensive and all-embracing eight-year replacement programme. Too many paths are still in sufficiently good condition for their sparse pedestrian traffic, and too often the project has resulted in major road disruption.
Now, yet another factor is making this look like money badly spent. Ultra-fast broadband being laid across the city has resulted in some of the new footpaths being dug up and left in an inferior condition. Patch-up jobs left by contractors in Bassett Rd, Remuera, and Jervois Rd, Herne Bay, are typical of a far wider problem.
It hardly helps that broadband provider Chorus and Auckland Transport have taken to arguing over the extent to which footpaths should be reinstated. It should go without saying that paths less than five years old should be replaced to the same standard.
There are optimistic noises about the broadband rollout being co-ordinated with the laying of new footpaths. That is of no help to residents whose new paths have already been shoddily reinstated.
