Building back better after a disaster

Good, fast and on-budget infrastructure building shouldn't have to wait for disaster situations to swing into action.A new report on the success of restoring access to the Coromandel after a slip has lessons for future projects - but is anyone listening?The tight and twisty route north through the Brynderwyn Hills closes on Monday as work begins to make the State Highway more resilient to floods and storms. It's not ideal. There are three alternative routes, and the track for trucks through Dargaville will add an hour to their journeys. But as the country continues to be hit by fierce weather, the number of landslides wiping out key routes is only likely to increase. Amongst the talk of a huge infrastructure deficit in the country and the billions we will have to spend, there is a good news story.When part of State Highway 25A was wiped out in last year's storms, destroying the direct route to the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula, a decision was made to replace the road with a bridge. The Taparahi Bridge opened three months earlier than expected, and was on budget. Now the successes of that project have been highlighted in a report by Infrastructure New Zealand, including its estimate that the early restored access led to increased tourism spending of $69.3 million, and increased GDP in the region by $85.88 million."There's nothing earth-shattering in this report," says the organisation's CEO, Nick Leggett. "What is surprising is that we know this stuff, and we haven't seen the change." Infrastructure NZ is holding two conferences for the construction industry on what was learnt from SH25A. One is in Tauranga and one in Auckland - the latter has sold out. The report has also been presented to the government, and Leggett says it's particularly relevant given the new government's stated intention to deliver infrastructure faster and more efficiently. "It's a good news story for the affected communities on the Coromandel. They said that when this road washed out in January 2023, the impact was worse than Covid. So to reinstate a key bit of infrastructure which involved a bridge span replacing a road in about 10 months - the usual project time was 18 to 24 months - that's something that's worth highlighting. When you dig a little bit deeper under the bonnet, what you find is there are some reasons for that." …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details