How we helped deliver the acclaimed Ōtākaro Development Programme post-earthquake legacy in Christchurch.
In 2010 and 2011, Christchurch was struck by a series of earthquakes that devastated the built environment, destroyed local infrastructure, and cost the lives of 185 people.
In response to this shocking natural disaster, the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan (CCRP) was created, in a determined effort not only to repair the damage, but regenerate the city for the people of Christchurch - turning the disaster into a catalyst for positive, sustainable, long-term change through the delivery of a brand-new central city.
The Development Programme was conceived by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and further developed and implemented by Ōtākaro to deliver on this ambitious vision. The program was extremely complex, comprising eight separate key “Anchor Projects” with a combined value of $NZ 2 billion ($US 1.42 billion). They included many new builds: amongst others, the Christchurch Convention and Exhibition Centre (Te Pae), Metro Sport Facility (Parakiore), National Earthquake Memorial, East Frame Residential Precinct, South Frame Greenway, all linked together by a modern and vibrant public realm network in the form of the Avon River Precinct.
Our role in the delivery of this vision was to design, establish, and resource a blended Programme Management Office (PMO) team that provided processes, procedures, tools, and systems to enable the Programme leadership to keep the program on-track through the inevitable challenges and changes that such a large undertaking generates.
Organizationally, Ōtākaro Limited was a new entity with a heightened requirement for advice and support. We therefore also took on the role of advising the Programme leadership and mentoring personnel, developing (for example) easily understood approaches to uncertainty and risk, to facilitate stakeholders’ effective early engagement with program processes. The ultimate aim being to fully transfer the PMO to Ōtākaro when certain organisational maturity targets had been achieved.
This was achieved by collaborating and integrating with Ōtākaro and providing program and project management, governance and assurance, budget and cost, risk and issues, schedule, baseline, benefits, and information management (including reporting) services.
Vital to the success of the program was our ability to act as a “critical friend”, combining the dual roles of support and assurance to build capability whilst safeguarding delivery of the programme.
The PMO was the largest and most publicized of its kind in New Zealand, operating in a highly political environment, involving local iwi, government and businesses, and the Crown and Treasury. At such levels of scrutiny, Ōtākaro needed a trusted partner that could objectively manage programme costs, timelines and risks, driven by data, to realise the social and economic benefits sought by the CCRP.
A benefits-centric approach; embedding benefits assessment within change control and risk management processes, ensured that the Crown’s desire to deliver benefits to the people of Christchurch and constantly identify opportunities for improvement was harnessed, focused, and optimised, at minimum risk.
The success of the PMO has resulted in sustainable legacies for Christchurch in more ways than one.
Its new built environment creates a more liveable, more equitable city, marrying green spaces with attractive housing, competition-standard sporting facilities with eco-friendly footpaths and cycleways, and world-class conference and cultural facilities with bustling small businesses, restaurants, and cafes.
Delivering broader, public value, outcomes was just as important to the Crown. We supported this objective by, for example, collaborating with the local quantity surveying community to develop higher-confidence cost forecasts, and risk management practices to better assess contingency requirements – competencies that would live on in their businesses long after the program was complete.
At the same time, senior analysts at the New Zealand Treasury have described the program’s approach to benefits management as the role model for Government investment, noting that the work the PMO has completed is “the best I’ve seen across Government, both in terms of the process … and the resulting quality of benefits and supporting products.” and advocating for the approach to be rolled out across other investment intensive government agencies.