Project Rescoping
The project team are currently rescoping the project with the target of delivering a rescoped project able to be delivered within the original budget set by partners in 2019, being $29.4m.
Given the rise in construction costs nationwide since the project was approved in 2019 and following unprecedented cost escalations post the COVID-19 period, project sponsor and partner Whakatane District Council has recently confirmed to the Te Rāhui Herenga Waka board that no additional funding is available as has Crown funding agency Kānoa. The rescoping of the project will focus on reducing the size of the Boat Harbour and scaling back the initial number of berths and hardstand space. The QS numbers used are being surgically reviewed with the support of local contractors.
The rescoped Project will be required to be viable when presented to the Te Rāhui Herenga Waka board and unanimously agreed by Project Partners in late February 2025.
The Beacon newspaper recently ran this story on the rescoping of the project:
“Te Rāhui Herenga Waka Boat Harbour project will be scaled down due to cost escalations. Whakatāne District Council and Crown funding agency Kānoa will provide no further funding beyond the $29.7 million already set aside for the project, prompting a rescope. Read more: Te Rāhui Herenga Waka Boat Harbour project will be scaled down due to cost escalations since it first received funding. ”
Project Director Phil Wardale updated upwards of 20 members of the Whakatāne Harbour Users Group gathered in the conference room at Whakatāne Sportfishing Club on the current status of the boat harbour project.
The harbour was originally planned to provide berths for 60 boats.
Mr Wardale said both Whakatāne District Council and Crown funding agency Kānoa had made it clear that no further funding on top of the $29.7 million already set aside for the project, would be made available.
In 2020, the Whakatāne council allocated $9.8 million toward the project from its Harbour Fund and Kānoa made an equity provision of $13.9 million to the project. It also granted $1 million and made a suspensory loan of $4.7 million to the harbour site’s landowners, Te Rāhui Lands Trust, to cover land remediation costs. A suspensory loan is one that does not need to be paid back if certain conditions are met.
To date, $3.7 million has been spent.
A limited partnership between the three shareholders was formed in 2021 with directors appointed for each. Ngāti Awa Group Holdings also has a director on the board although it is not a financial shareholder.
While a symbolic ceremony was held to open the project in 2022, apart from CCTV cameras, fencing and staff facilities, little progress has been made.
Further testing of the site has found small amounts of toxic chemicals present in the wood waste dumped at the site. In June this year, Bay of Plenty Regional Council granted a Site and Soil Contamination Management Plan for the project to start digging out the wood waste, a process that Mr Wardale said had taken 15 months.
A bond of $585,000 had been deposited with the regional council to cover any risk of the council having to step in and remediate the site if the consent holder did not do as required.
Mr Wardale said it was a “significant bond”, much higher than the $20,000 to $30,000 he had expected it to be at the start of his conversations with the regional council.
“Today, I could turn up and dig, under those consents. What I don’t have is the location to take it.”
Meanwhile, increased building costs over the past four years mean the project will not be able to be built for the $29.7 million available.
Mr Wardale said the board had asked him to prepare a report for February-March to determine whether there was a phased-stage option for the boat harbour that would be viable within the original budget.
Some of the options he might look at would be having fewer piers, a smaller hardstand and smaller offloading wharfs.
If this option proved unviable, the other option would be to close the project and return the money.
Mr Wardale said despite tour boats no longer taking trips to White Island, there was still a strong demand for extra berths, with boats often doubled up on the wharf.
A fishing club member who did not wish to be named confirmed that he would be keen to use the proposed boat harbour if it was built.