The project involves the construction of 6km of green-field motorway and the conversion of approximately 7km of Main South Road from a two lane to a median divided four lane highway terminating at Rolleston.
The highway interfaces with the existing CSM Stage 1 project at the Halswell Junction Road interchange and is strategically positioned to provide fast motorway connectivity from the Lyttelton Port, through to the key urban and suburban municipalities of the South Island. It allows for the efficient passage of both freight and leisure users and is close to the Christchurch International Airport and main highway routes to State Highway 1 and the north.
Key interchanges at Weedons Road and Shands Road connect to local roads and the industrial areas of Hornby with a series of underpasses and overbridges. To facilitate this and maintain safe travel on Main South Road during construction, a significant number of temporary traffic management plans were implemented, including several keys switches of traffic across the available lanes.
Octa has provided staff to support the supervisory team on behalf of NZTA in the Engineer to the Contract role under NZS 3910:2013 and is also providing programme support and analysis.
The project presented many challenges including complex changes to sequencing of works and commercial re-structuring of the project at the start of the final year of construction.
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Negotiation and agreement on the payment structure emerging from the Contract change
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Rigorous assessment and scoring of contractor performance
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Drafting of a generic guidance note for the assessment of payment claims and recovery of an advance payment provided to NZTA contractors nationally as a result of the Covid-19 Alert Level 4 Lockdown
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Progression of works (to maintain safe traffic flow) during the Covid-19 Lockdown and the subsequent re-commencement of work.
Due to the delays occasioned by the Lockdown, project completion will be phased across the 2020 winter and spring/ summer of 2020/21.
