Fast-tracked public projects provide jobs boost

The Government's $500 million Jobs and Growth infrastructure stimulus package is on track and supporting thousands of jobs around New Zealand, Infrastructure Minister Bill English says.

The package, announced in February last year, fast-tracked several state house, road and school projects, including the new Mt Wellington Primary School in Auckland.

Mr English and Education Minister Anne Tolley turned the first sod on the school site today. The project is starting about 10 months ahead of its previously planned start date and will support up to 55 full-time jobs.

"When we came into Government we moved quickly to put measures in place to support New Zealand families during the recession. Those initiatives are working," Mr English says.

"Most of the projects we announced are well underway, creating opportunities for contractors, construction companies and trades people as well as a range of suppliers. These projects will continue to support jobs throughout the year."

Officials estimate that at their peak the projects will directly support about 2300 jobs.

"These projects are just a small part of a multi-billion dollar infrastructure programme that is supporting thousands more jobs and families around the country over the next five years.

"That programme includes improvements to our key national highways, strengthening our national electricity grid and rolling out ultra-fast broadband.

"These changes will permanently lift our productivity, help give businesses the confidence to create new jobs and contribute to higher living standards for New Zealand families."

An update on the stimulus package follows.

Jobs and Growth stimulus package update

Housing

The Government announced in February $124.5 million for state house upgrades and new builds under Jobs & Growth including:

• Up to 10,000 houses upgraded at a cost of $104.5 million over the remainder of the 08/09 year and in the 09/10 year.
• An increase the number of new state houses (over and above the 450 HNZC were adding to their stock in the 08/09 financial year) by 69 at a cost of $20 million in the remainder of the 08/09 year.

Housing NZ has completed the new house component of the package - building 87 new houses, exceeding its target by 18 houses.

By the end of December it had also completed 2695 upgrades with a further 1,659 properties identified as "work in progress". About 6,000 more houses have been identified for an upgrade and work will begin soon.

During December the housing stimulus package resulted in 1,265 full-time and 336 part-time jobs.

Roading

The Government announced $142.5 million of transport spending, spanning five large state highway projects and a programme of smaller, regional roading improvement projects.

Construction work has begun on all five of the major roading projects including:

• Earth works on the Rimutaka Hill Corner (Muldoon's) easing. Original finish date: October 2014. New finish date: June, 2012.
• Earth works on the Kopu Bridge replacement in the Coromandel, with piling work set to commence shortly. Original finish date: September, 2013. New finish date: June 2012.
• Earth works on the Hawke's Bay Expressway southern extension. Original finish date: October 2011. New finish date: June, 2011.
• Earth works on the Matahoura Gorge realignment. Original finish date: April 2012. New finish date: March 2011.
• Site works have begun on the Christchurch Southern Motorway extension. New finish date: May, 2013.

The cost of accelerating these five projects is $42.5 million.

In addition, about $63 million of the $100 million set aside for accelerating State Highway renewals has already been spent.

In full swing these projects will collectively support about 600 jobs.

Education

Under the stimulus package $216.7 million of education spending including five new schools, school refurbishments and ICT infrastructure improvements were brought forward.

Including Mt Wellington Primary, construction has now started on three of the schools. The other two are Golden Sands Primary and Papamoa Secondary near Tauranga. Planning and assessment work on the others is progressing. The acceleration of the school building projects will collectively cost $69 million.

Construction has commenced on 48 of 85 refurbishment and maintenance projects. The 85 projects are collectively worth $71 million. Project managers have been appointed for all the projects and tenders completed on over three quarters.

About $26 million of $34 million available to upgrade schools' internal computer networks to make them broadband ready has been allocated to 114 schools.

About $3 million from an additional $9 million for special schools has been allocated and spending on and trades academies -included in the package - is also underway.

There is no exact headcount of the number of jobs this will support, but education officials estimate the projects will collectively support about 700 jobs at their peak.

Mt Wellington School

The school is expected to be completed by the end of the year and open on February 1, next year.

It will provide initial classrooms for 260 students and infrastructure for an eventual maximum of 520 students.

The budget for the design and construction of the school is $6.8 million.