DrainWise outlay way under budget

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

In terms of expenditure, the council is now halfway through the $22 million DrainWise effort to reduce wastewater discharges into city rivers and on to people’s properties during heavy rain.

However, an update to councillors for their meeting on Thursday advises that budgeted spending for the financial year just completed has been cut from $2.38m to $1.128m, with just $670,000 of established year-to-date costs.

The report says the $1.25m capital reduction is being redistributed to critical water supply infrastructure work, while the reforecast $458,000 still available for DrainWise had been allocated as tenders for the current work programme — which was on target to be completed before emergency works were required last month.

Reasons for the downsized DrainWise programme of the past year include changes to reduce construction impacts on businesses in the inner harbour and align with work on underground services, contractor capacity, wet weather delays, and deferral of a Rutene Road stormwater upgrade due to high tender pricing because of risks due to weather.

“The design of next year’s capital programme has commenced (and aims) to provide greater flexibility and construction time for contractors,” says the report.

Private property inspections in the main problem area of Kaiti have been progressing well, with 14 wastewater catchments in the suburb completed and eight to go. The report says gully trap water tests and sealings are being completed as they go, and the team had temporarily stopped inspections to catch up with gully trap sealing.

“The property inspection and gully trap work protocols are being reviewed to identify where further efficiencies can be gained. A list of properties with downpipes directed into gully traps has also been produced, so that we can focus on these properties.”

An assessment of wet weather wastewater overflows and their environmental effects continues. The report also notes the council is required to have a resource consent for emergency wastewater discharges into city rivers by July 2020, an application for which is likely to be made early next year.