Museum project update coming soon
Findings from additional assessments, funding discussions and project options will be outlined in an update detailing progress on the strengthening and redevelopment of Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa in early July.
“This is an extremely complex project,” executive sponsor of the project, Gina Rangi, who is Rotorua Lakes Council’s DCE Te Arawa Partnerships, says.
In April 2021 the council announced to the community that as the project design reached the most complex atrium area, the challenge of strengthening a heritage building sited on geothermal ground resulted in buildability and risk questions. It was considered prudent to undergo additional investigations to assess alternatives and bring in additional expert advice.
Following new information regarding the quantity survey estimate (which was received in March 2022) an update was given to elected members in April this year, outlining the situation at that time, including new information on NBS (New Building Standard) ratings, funding challenges, and options for the project.
The update to elected members in April was dealt with in confidential due to the commercial nature of some of the information that needed to be reported and because discussions needed to be held with major external funders, who are providing 70 per cent of current funding for the project.
Additional talks with funders were required following this meeting and things have progressed since then.
A public update is scheduled for next month’s Rotorua Lakes Council Operations & Monitoring Committee meeting when we expect to have further detail.
“We know this project is of huge local and national interest given the history and heritage value of the Bath House and it will be a community conversation that will be highlighted in the pre-election report due out in August.”
In June 2018 Rotorua Lakes Council committed $15.5m as part of the 2018-28 Long-term Plan.
Major external funding partners include: Lottery Grants Board: $6m, Provincial Growth Fund: $17m, Rotorua Trust (RECT): $10m and Manatū Taonga (Ministry of Culture and Heritage): $5m.
A special - and complex - building
Mike Jacka, Technical Director at Tonkin and Taylor, specialises in earthquake geotechnical engineering and has been working on the museum strengthening and redevelopment.
He has worked on some of the most complex earthquake strengthening projects around New Zealand and played a key role in the government red zone decisions after the Canterbury Earthquakes, and MBIE’s subsequent engineering guidance documents and building code changes.
Mike says the Rotorua Museum project is more complicated than other heritage buildings he has worked on due to the geothermal ground on which it was built.
He says taking the time to thoroughly investigate the ground has ultimately led to a better groundwork solution and has saved the project a lot of time, risk and money.
Watch this video HERE where Mike talks about the project and the challenges involved.
See the April 2021 update HERE
For more information on this project visit: https://visiontoaction.nz/projects-home/museum/