Gisborne wastewater scheme: Successfully re-defining a community project

In September 2007, Gisborne District Council (GDC) was granted a 35 year resource consent for a major two-stage upgrade of the Gisborne wastewater treatment system (the Scheme). In preparing the preliminary design and cost estimates, GDC’s appointed design consultants, CH2M Beca Ltd, generated an out-turn cost which proved to be significantly greater than previous estimates for the Scheme. Consequently, a period of value engineering and scope re-definition work was undertaken to reduce the cost of the Scheme to a level acceptable for the Gisborne community while preserving the objectives of the original consent.

An analysis tool, the Cost Route Mapping Analysis (CRMA), was developed to assess various wastewater treatment options that could be implemented in stages, alongside options to re-locate the treatment plant. The success of the Gisborne Wastewater Scheme to date, in selecting a Scheme that is economically, technically, socially, culturally and environmentally acceptable to the local community, has resulted from the successful collaboration between numerous stakeholders, the Council and the Wastewater Project Team to achieve a single goal. This is in alignment with the project’s motto: “Best for Gisborne”.

This paper discusses the background, methodology and challenges in the process of meeting this objective and the way forward.