Business Central February 2021

20 | Council gets cracking on development A major restoration and redevelopment project is underway at Rotorua Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa, that had to be closed due to damage caused by the 2016 Kaikoura earthquakes. from page 19 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Rotorua Lakes Council ww engineers | surveyors | planners 1180 Amohia Street, Rotorua 3010 Ph: +64 7 349 8470 Proudly supporting Rotorua Lakes Council and the community With a history spanning more than 80 years, Cheal is a locally owned, multi-disciplinary consultancy compa- ny. Originally created in Taupo in 1940 by Land Surveyor, Laurie Cheal, the company now offers expertise across the fields of Civil, Structural and Geotechnical Engineering, Surveying, Resource Management Planning and Terrestrial and Metrology Grade Laser Scanning. With offices in Rotorua, Taupo, Hamilton, Napier, Taumarunui and Ohakune, the company services the entire Central North Island. Cheal is proud to be an integral part of the Rotorua region, supporting the Rotorua Lakes Council to achieve their 2030 vision by providing a high level of knowledge and skills in all aspects of its services. Rotorua Lakes Council is able to rely on Cheal’s in-house team of professionals to work collaboratively with them, looking after projects from the initial scoping and consent stage, right through to completion. The residential and industrial growth of the Rotorua region has been firmly supported by the services Cheal provides. They have recently included the completion of a new subdivision at Whatumairangi Way in Owhata, as well as a full laser scan of the surface contours of the 100m outdoor swimming pool at Rotorua Aquatic Centre, providing vital engineering information to ensure the community has a structurally sound facility. Over the past two years, Cheal has assisted the Rotorua Lakes Council with a multitude of projects to achieve their long-term goals for the community, by providing survey requirements for drainage renewal and a new cycleway in the Eastern region of Rotorua, engineering for the new bridges currently being constructed in the Waipa Mountain Bike Park and assisting with surveying and engineer- ing requirements involved with the new BMX Track facilities. Cheal has also been involved in the maintenance of the iconic Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts building, undertaking Geotechnical investiga- tions in 2018 and more recently in 2020 providing construction surveying for the current upgrade project. “The success of Cheal is attributed to the high-quality level of work we produce in all aspects of the business and the strong, vibrant culture that has been created and nurtured since the start” says Chief Executive, Rebecca Hawke. “The mindset, energy, forethought and flexibility of the Rotorua team was a key factor in them being awarded the title of Westpac Rotorua Business Excellence Award-Winners 2019”. Cheal takes pride in supporting the Rotorua Lakes Council and in turn the Rotorua community and will continue to work cohesively to provide, high-quality, innovative consultancy services, to continue to support Rotorua as an economical, vibrant, culturally diverse location to live, work and play. Cheal Consultants Ltd walkers. PGF gave us $7.09m towards forest redevelopments, supporting Council’s invest- ment of $7.5m. The upgrade began in 2019.” Safety and roading improvements have been completed on Titokorangi Drive and there is now access for coach, equestrian and public parking. Alongside this a shared path has been constructed and lighting installed. A second forest hub (additional to the primary hub at Waipa which was previously upgraded) was completed in October 2020 and includes parking for up to 400 vehicles, event space, a toilet and shower block and bike wash stations. A coffee/food cart is currently operating at the hub with other commercial operators on track to be up and running in the New Year. A new 30km cycle loop around the forest is also nearing completion and a similar loop around the city that will connect to the forest is in the design stage. Reflecting on the myriad of development projects Rotorua is abuzz with, Mayor Chad- wick says when the city popped out of Covid lockdown, the work re-started. ‘It just makes you feel so good about the place when you see investment and it has lifted us up. “We know, to match all of this as well, we need to have a housing plan and we’re work- ing aggressively on that to meet our growth.” Built on an active geothermal area, repairs to the museum are an engineering challenge but Mayor Chadwick says it can be done. “We had to restore the museum. That had huge community support, so we went to the government and obtained lots of funding. “The Ministry of Culture and Heritage and PGF has given us a combined total of $22m. We got $10m from Rotorua Energy Charita- ble Trust, a lotteries grant of $6m and a very charitable family foundation gave us $100,000. And the Council has invested $15m. So this is a massive project which will be completed in seven stages.” Stages 1 – 3 to the south wing and founda- tion work are ready to go pending completion of a structural peer review. “Completion of the project is 2 – 3 years away but once complete internal layout changes will significantly im- prove the visitor experience and accessibility. “Otherwise the building will look almost ex- actly as it does now, retaining all the heritage features and charm that we know and love.” Our discussion moves on to the Whaka- rewarewa Forest Development and Mayor Chadwick tells me that back in 2013 it was agreed that mountain biking was the new gold, attracting 230,000 mountain bikers along with between 600-800,000 other visitors each year. “We worked with several iwi entities to enhance Whakarewarewa as a playground for locals, visiting mountain bikers, runners and