The construction crisis will impact children enrolling for primary and secondary school next year, with some building projects running a year behind schedule
When Flaxmere College principal Jim Hay-Mackenzie broke ground on the school's big rebuild, more than two years ago, he described it as a symbolic start. "Flaxmere College is the local school for our students so they should be expected to not only have the best teachers but the best facilities."
After much time, negotiation, and increased budgets, he said, work had finally begun.
He wasn't to know that it was not just a start to the work; it was a start of more delays and budget blowouts.
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Under the Official Information Act, the Ministry of Education has released details of the 20 schools suffering the worst building project delays. The redevelopment of Flaxmere College in Hastings and Onehunga High School in Auckland, and the expansion of Garston School in Southland, are all running 12 months behind.
The redevelopment of Albany School and Lawrence Area School, and the expansion of West Rolleston Primary School, are delayed nine months. Another 14 of the ministry's school building projects are running six months behind schedule.
A number of the affected schools, like Flaxmere, are in NZ's less affluent communities.
At the 240-pupil Flaxmere College, the first stage of the project to build a new admin block, and rebuild the hall and main teaching block, was scheduled for handover on December 2021.
The gym and Kowhai Special School refurbishment were to be completed earlier this year – but four days ago, workers were still pouring concrete.
According to the Ministry of Education, the project is now due for completion by June next year. And yet another cohort of students has graduated from a school that they know only as a building site.
Delays to construction supplies have been part of the problem, says Hay-Mackenzie, combined with three years of Covid delays.
"The construction company has kept up up to date all the time. We've now moved into our main admin block and we've moved into two of our main teaching blocks, but there's still our gymnasium and a special education unit to be built."
Sam Fowler, the ministry's head of property, says the ministry had 111 projects recorded as being in construction, at the end of September this year. Twenty projects were delayed by more than one fiscal quarter, he said; the other 91 would be completed on schedule, or ahead of time.
"Generally, drivers in change to forecast completion dates were supply chain constraints, consenting timeframes, scope changes or unforeseen works," he says.
In some cases, he says, the substantive works may be completed sooner than the forecast completion date, but a smaller portion or element of the works may be left outstanding.
"None of the 111 projects currently recorded as being in construction are forecasting the cost of constructions to fall outside of the construction cost and contingency allowances forecast when the contract was executed."
The schools suffering four to six month delays are:
- Ngākōroa School
- Campbells Bay School
- Amesbury School
- Bream Bay College
- Ridgway School
- Ngāruawāhia High School
- Auckland Normal Intermediate
- Karamea Area School
- Karori West Normal School
- Rotorua Boys' High School
- Heretaunga Intermediate
- Kaikorai School
- Arowhenua Maori School
- Wakatipu High School
While the projects may have now have exceeded the contingencies forecasted in the contract, principals spoken to by Newsroom confirmed they had blown out.
With 528 pupils last year, Bream Bay College isn't one of the country's bigger high schools. In the Northland community of Ruakaka, next to the shopping centre, it serves a strongly-Māori community that's been hit by the downturn in wool prices and the closure of the oil refinery at Marsden Point.
Its classroom block is nearly 50 years old – so it was well due a rebuild. But the ministry lists its building project as running four to six months behind. The 10 new classrooms were meant to be completed this year. They're now due to open at the end of April next year.
It's one of the many public sector infrastructure projects – especially transport, social housing, schools and hospitals – that have been hit by the construction crisis. Last week's half-year fiscal update, from the Treasury, is grim:
"Agencies are likely to face capital expenditure pressures related to replacing ageing infrastructure and other capital requirements driven by demand pressures. These are likely to be exacerbated by the impact from Covid-19, supply chain disruption and the tight labour market."
Just as households face changes in the cost of living and firms face changes in input costs including labour, the Treasury report says, so too the cost of providing government services and delivering core infrastructure and ICT projects may also change, potentially requiring additional funding beyond that in the fiscal forecasts.
"These pressures are risks to the fiscal forecasts to the extent that they cannot be managed through agencies’ existing balance sheets and baselines, new capital spending set aside in forecasts from the multi-year capital allowance, or other funding mechanisms."
The cost of constructing Auckland Light Rail is expected to increase, the Treasury report says. And officials highlight the problems at housing agency Kāinga Ora, saying its projects pose a risk of delays and cost over-runs, given their scale and complexity.
The fiscal update warns the conditions of health infrastructure, combined with demographic change, pose an increased risk to the public purse.
Te Whatu Ora has refused an Official Information Act request to disclose a board report detailing the delays and blow-outs. The Ministry of Education has, however, released details of the 20 schools suffering the worst building project delays.
School construction delays
A number of the affected schools are in NZ's less affluent communities. The redevelopment of Flaxmere College and Onehunga High School, and the expansion of Garston School in Southland, are all running 12 months behind.
Bream Bay principal Wayne Buckland acknowledges the "competent" work of the current Ministry of Education project team. Work is now progressing quickly, he says.
The problem is the number of project leads over 13 long years planning the project. "Five master plans and multiple new Ministry of Education project leads have caused us to have to restart many times since 2015," he says.
While waiting for the ministry, the school and community dipped into their own pockets, and sold two school houses, to build their own whare.
"The extra five classrooms of space in our whare has saved us from extreme stress," Buckland says. "The worst part is having told the community since 2015 that our new-builds were just around the corner."
Deidre Shea, who retires as principal of the 1000-pupil Onehunga High School this month, says the Auckland school's building programme is now nearly complete. The gym, arts and science block are all completed, but one classroom block is still a work in progress.
The ministry says it should be finished by June.
"The original delay is the one that hurt most – more than a decade," Shea says. "But our delay has meant an outstanding result, much of which is complete and the rest is following."
At Wakatipu High School, staff and pupils moved onto a new site in 2018 – though it wasn't yet complee.
Principal Oded Nathan said the project was running a year behind its original 2014 schedule, but that schedule had been revised in 2018. The last part of the project, the gymnasium, would open at the start of the 2023 school year.
"We have been pretty well-planned and been able to get temporary classrooms as that expansion has been has been constructed," he says. "So we're actually very happy with how the process has gone, in relative terms. But I know there are other stories struggling more than we are."
