Pool on $3 billion shortlist

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

A $46 million redevelopment of Gisborne's Olympic Pool Complex is in the running for Government funding.

The complex's leaky 50-metre indoor pool has reopened following the coronavirus lockdown, but it is on borrowed time without significant maintenance.

The city's wastewater treatment plant upgrade has also made the shortlist for a slice of the $3 billion set aside from the Government's Covid-19 response and recovery fund for infrastructure projects across the country.

The budget for the treatment plant upgrade recently blew out by more than $9m to $33.5m after refinements to its design, with construction due to begin early next year.

Gisborne District Council applied in April for taxpayer funds for nine infrastructure projects and threw its support behind the reinstatement of the Gisborne to Wairoa rail line.

More than 1900 projects throughout New Zealand worth a combined $136 billion were put forward for funding.

They have been whittled down to a shortlist of 802 projects.

The council has confirmed five of its nine projects have made the shortlist.

As well as the pool complex and treatment plant, projects to upgrade the Waipaoa River stopbanks ($25.7m) and residential wastewater and stormwater systems ($49m and $11.7m respectively) have made it over the first hurdle.

The shortlisted projects will be assessed by Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones.

The four council projects that did not make it past round one were the managed recharge of the Makauri aquifer ($16.6m-$23.6m), wharf restorations at Tokomaru Bay and Wharekahika/Hicks Bay ($13.94m), East Cape township upgrades ($3.86m) and the 1000-year walkway bridge ($3.8m).

The bridge to connect Puhi Kai Iti/Cook Landing Site National Historic Reserve and Titirangi/Kaiti Hill was originally meant to be in place for the 250th anniversary last October of the first onshore meetings between Maori and Paheka.

The Department of Conservation said it had put $1m towards the bridge project, while the Department of Internal Affairs had $2,684,108 in lottery funding set aside for it.

In its application to the Government, the council said a contract for the bridge's construction was due to be awarded in February but funding fell through due to Covid-19.