14 | Started in July 2021 and completed late March/Early April this year, the project was considerably more than a superficial makeover. Invercargill City Council Ltd: City Streets Development REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT 0800 802 546 bonisch.nz SURVEYING PLANNING We’re proud to assist ICC City Centre Streets Upgrade from concept to completion and providing support to the growth of our region ENGINEERING LAND DEVELOPMENT Lloyd Brownlie L & W LANDSCAPING For all Landscaping and Paving 0274 335 759 PO Box 296, Invercargill 9840 Iwland@xtra.co.nz The smart approach to environmental management Call our experienced team of environmental scientists (03) 409 8664 | www.e3scien�fic.co.nz Locally owned and operated environmental science consultancy serving Otago & Southland since 2007 - CONTAMINATED LAND - MARINE, FRESHWATER AND TERRESTRIAL ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT - LANDSCAPE RESTORATION - WATER RESOURCES & WATER QUALITY INVESTIGATION T T Russell Fredric Streets upgrade overcomes challenges “It’s been an incredibly complex operation with many moving parts. We are all pleased that we have managed the scale of transformation while so many things were thrown at us.” Undertaking the $20 million City Streets upgrade in the midst of the $180 million Invercargill Central project was a complex task for Invercargill City Council (ICC) and its contractors. Esk and Don streets form the heart of the central city, and connect Invercargill Central Limited’s (ICL) mall, HWR Tower and Langlands Hotel developments with a high quality people-focused street development which includes changes to vehicle circulation. This and the opening of ICL’s 650 place carparking building is enabling greater use of these streets by people on a daily basis, increasing footfall by parking once, and filtering through the inner city. The City Streets upgrade was not without its challenges, chief executive Michael Day says. Started in July 2021 and completed late March/Early April this year, the project was considerably more than a superficial makeover. As well as aesthetic and traffic flow changes and improvements, it included the renewal of the foul sewer main in Esk Street, the need to remove contaminated earth and was undertaken during the covid pandemic, Michael says. “It’s been an incredibly complex operation with many moving parts. We are all pleased that we have managed the scale of transformation while so many things were thrown at us,” he says. The challenges the project faced include including illness through the pandemic, the intricacies that arise from working alongside other active developments, infrastructure work, delays, unexpected soil contamination and archaeological discoveries, he said. These resulted in delays and the need to reschedule the work programme, but the council was impressed with the commitment and “the incredibly hard work” from all the teams involved. Council manager strategic asset planning Russell Pearson says, through the disruption and challenges, especially for retailers, there was the common recognition of some short term pain for long term gain and of an amazing outcome for an inner city that would be much more cohesive and people friendly. Although Invercargill has had two very good summers, the ground contamination problem, in which some heavy metals and low levels of cyanide were discovered, meant this part of the work site was shut down for examination and testing for about six weeks during the peak of the summer. The ground contamination was discovered among some archaeological material and is not uncommon in sites that have a long commercial history, and there was no public health risk, Russell says. The main civil contractor for the work was Downer, and the architectural designer Isthmus Group which was a key part of the master plan and community engagement process, while a much broader team that was involved included quantity surveyors, project managers, engineers and environmental consultants. “Everybody worked amazingly well together; it’s a really tight site, and they’ve worked well with the retailers, they’ve had good communication with them. I think we’ve worked well with a wider team.”
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