Christchurch City Council general manager of city infrastructure, Brent Smith, said night work and road closures are now planned as work on the Te Kaha Surrounding Streets package enters the final intensive phase.
“Construction around the stadium has had a high impact on local residents, business owners and commuters,” Smith said.
The first stage of upgrades to the water and road infrastructure around One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha started in July last year.
“We’ve been working closely with our contractors over the last eight months.
"There are currently about 100 contractors working on site each day.
"Crews are working weekends and sequencing work to save time, while still delivering a high standard of work.
“As a result, we’re looking at around a year for the bulk of the project to be delivered, instead of the originally anticipated 18 months,” Smith said.
The major work will wrap up from May and minor jobs such as the line marking, landscaping and streetlight commissioning will continue into spring.
“We have about three more months of intensive construction ahead of us,” says Smith.
He said the last phase will see several road and intersection closures, as well as night and weekend work.
The corner of Cashel St leading onto Madras St was closed on Monday for about five weeks so contractors can install new traffic lights, kerbing and pavements.
The Barbadoes St and Madras St intersections on Tuam St will close periodically in April for pavement reconstruction.
“While most of the Tuam St work is scheduled for weekends and overnight to lessen the impact on residents and commuters, we still anticipate some disruption in the area between 11 April and 27 April,” said Smith.
Several permanent road layout changes will also come into effect soon, he said.
Lichfield St to the east of the stadium will be converted into a two-way road in March to allow traffic to flow both ways between Fitzgerald Ave and Barbadoes St.
Then a block south of the stadium, Tuam St will be made one way for east-bound traffic like the rest of the street.
“We thank everyone for their patience while we get this important work done and encourage people to continue to support businesses in the area,” said Smith.
