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From Monday 3 July, Rapid Response Footpath Crews made up of HEB and Higgins contractors will be doing quick repairs to paths on behalf of the Christchurch City Council.
“We’ve been consistently told that residents aren’t happy with the condition of footpaths. Satisfaction is sitting at just 35% while complaints about small cracks and holes make up a large amount of complaints I hear from residents, so it’s great to see teams established to help improve this,” Mayor Phil Mauger says.
The crews will complete small footpath repairs of up to 3m², as well as trimming back vegetation and fixing small sections of kerbs, whilst not stepping into the road.
The jobs they do will require minimal traffic management, equipment and materials, which will mean they are able to respond faster and complete more repairs per day than the larger construction crews.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing boots on the ground and getting repairs underway,” Mayor Mauger says.
“Last week I went out and caught up with the teams on their induction day where they were working outside Chisnallwood Intermediate on Breezes Road in Avondale. It was a really great milestone to see first-hand.”
There is currently 2,792km of footpaths across Christchurch and Banks Peninsula with the Council receiving just over 1,500 requests for service from residents every year.
A footpath condition report completed on 1093km of the footpath network shows there is 993km in a very good/good condition (91%), 57km in a fair condition (5%) and 43km of footpath in very poor /poor condition (4%).
The remaining 1699km of footpath network will be captured next financial year to gain a fuller picture. In the meantime, the footpath crews will be targeting safety issues, at the same time as fixing everything else in the same street that falls within their scope to repair. Anything that is too large will be identified, captured and programmed for the larger construction crews to complete at a suitable time in future.
“The contractors will be able to do small repairs along the whole street in one go so our major crews tackling the bigger repairs. It’s a real win-win with footpaths will be made safer as well as fixed a whole lot quicker,” Mayor Mauger says.
Funding for the crews was included in this year’s Annual Plan which was adopted on Tuesday 27 June. The cost is eligible for a Waka Kotahi subsidy of 51%.
