Major clients in the Canterbury rebuild shared their forward work programmes at an industry forum in Christchurch on 28 January.
The Christchurch Rebuild – Construction Market Engagement Forum was instigated by the Productivity Partnership and hosted by CERA with the support of MBIE. There was standing room only as more than 300 people from the supply side of the industry gathered for a forward view of projects planned by Housing NZ, the Ministry of Education, University of Canterbury, Christchurch City Council, NZ Transport Agency and the Christchurch Central Development Unit.
There was a high degree of interest in the information and repeated calls for a scheduled programme of work to give visibility to when projects are going to market and the resources they will require. The clear message from the industry was “involve us as much as you can, as early as you can”.
In addition to presentations from major construction clients, SCIRT provided an update on progress and lessons learned from their work for the vertical rebuild and the Construction Strategy Group provided an industry perspective on the rebuild.