By Lynda Myer
As Auckland’s City Rail Link (CRL) project has stated, New Zealand is in shortage of people skilled in delivering large and complex infrastructure projects.
The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga, using an interim review looking at lessons learned from the project, found the issue was illustrated by how the governance and oversight of the project needed to continually evolve and develop workarounds for the structures originally agreed.
“This was time consuming and created additional pressure on teams that needed to be focused on delivery,” said Te Waihanga delivery general manager Blake Lepper.
Considering that over than NZ$1bn of essential upgrades were omitted from the business case, the review, which was led by Graeme Joyce and Peter Spies, queried this issue and recommended future business cases be reviewed when expectations, scope or costs changed. It also emphasized the need for stronger procurement planning, in light of the challenges involved in working with local and international contractors.
According to Lepper: “It is important to reflect on what we have learnt so far from this project, particularly around business case processes, as we contemplate a significant number of new major transport investments. There is no doubt the City Rail Link will be a tremendous asset for Auckland City, delivering significant travel time, safety and urban intensification benefits. However, it is projected to cost more than double what was estimated in 2015, with many billions more to be spent across the Auckland rail network in years to come to realize the full design capacity of the project.”
While in 2022 the need to construct the capability of major project leaders was a recommendation in the New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy released, Te Waihanga is working on a program to address the issue.
As the country’s first large-scale integrated transport-urban development project, CRL is New Zealand’s biggest infrastructure investment to date comprising a 3.45km twin tunnel underground rail link up to 42m beneath Auckland city center.
Benefiting three tunneling methods, this project is advancing by Link Alliance, a consortium of City Rail Link Ltd, Vinci Construction Grands Projets, Downer NZ, Soletanche Bachy International NZ, WSP NZ, Aecom New Zealand, and Tonkin + Taylor. The date of final breakthrough by TBM on the twin tunnels was September last year, and these connect to nearly 1km of cut and cover tunnels, whereas the SCL mined section was completed in June.
