The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance can reveal through Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act that Auckland Council spent $263,000 on four sets of stairs for Milford Beach’s Southern Walkway.
As part of council’s coastal asset renewals programme, the total figure adds up to $8,218.75 per step, replaced like-for-like with the addition of a handrail.
Staggering, even for local government.
You can get sets of outdoor steps for a few hundred dollars. I could even imagine you spending a few thousand dollars on them – but over $60,000 each is incredible.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
7 comments:
Unfortunately nothing surprises me now days as stupidity still has a firm grip on this stupid little nation. I counted 11 road "workers", although only 1 was actually working, along a 80m stretch of road. When I drove back about an hour later there were 15 there.....with 3 visibily doing something. There were 4 on the stop / go signs, I'm unsure why you need 2 people on a sign, perhaps the one holding it can't read, so there is backup to help? This is absolute nuts, but this is why the steps cost $8k each. And why a strip of road costs many millions.
Hey, I just modified the two sets of steps on our decks to turn two risers into three (makes stepping up easier in old age) - have I inadvertently added $16,000 to the value of our property? Wow!
How much of the price for these steps was paid to iwi and/or hapu for permission to replace some old existing steps?
Presumably in th modern manner mana whenua (all claimants ) were consulted. i wonder if the cost of consultation was included.
Hmm, what you say is both right and wrong. The steps are not timber but concrete, over 2 m tall. The structures is reinforced and strengthen to withstand high waves. It is expensive - hell yes, but is it very different than any concrete work?
I witnessed the construction of the stairs.
It took them longer to break the old stairs which were clearly still sound.
There would be 1.5 cubes of concrete in set of steps.
Wish I got the contract!!!!
Well, what with pedestrian management, cone installation, mana whenua consultation and approval, Council resource and then building consenting, and inspections before each stage of each step is created, I'm suprised it didn't cost more! And people wonder why our GDP isn't growing?
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