OIA-20263 response: Request made under the Official Information Act 1982 (NZUP Queenstown Package cost overrun)

Context and purpose: This is NZTA (Waka Kotahi)'s 30 January 2026 response (ref OIA-20263) to a requester (name withheld), whose request of 11 November 2025 was refined on 20 and 28 November 2025 (p1). It answers four points: (1) a cost-overrun analysis; (2) papers and formal correspondence reporting on the overruns; (3) the procurement recommendation for the Alliance and supporting documents; (4) the Alliance contract.

Point 1 - cost history: The project budget was originally approved at $107.6 million in 2020, described as a high-level estimate based on national rather than local construction rates. It was revised to include NZTA core costs and pre-2020 project costs, giving a revised budget of $115 million (p1). Once the delivery Alliance was established, topographical and geotechnical investigations enabled a delivery proposal which was tested against a full parallel pricing process by an independent estimator, giving a reconciled delivery price of $329.97 million, excluding former business case costs, property, Alliance management, consenting and NZTA core and directly managed costs (p1). The utility diversion scope was larger than envisaged and escalation was high, partly due to COVID-19 (p1). The project was funded from the Crown NZUP appropriation within a nationally allocated programme envelope (p1).

Original scope (pp1-2): (a) signalised intersections at five Frankton locations (SH6/SH6A replacing the roundabout; SH6/Joe O'Connell Drive; SH6 bus hub exit and entry; SH6A/McBride Street); (b) a new and expanded Frankton bus hub; (c) a new roundabout at SH6/Howards Drive (Ladies Mile); (d) four further signalised intersections and three pedestrian signals on SH6A between Frankton and Queenstown; (e) Hawthorne Drive and Grant Road intersection signalisation and pedestrian signals near Hardware Lane (SH6 eastern corridor); (f) Humphrey Street and Lucas Place (airport) roundabouts to signals and relocated pedestrian signals near Ross Street (SH6 Kawarau Road/southern corridor); (g) a new eastbound bus lane on SH6 Ladies Mile between Howards Drive and the Shotover River bridge. The scope was consolidated and renamed the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS) Queenstown package with a $250 million budget (p2). All items were designed, but only a, b and c were funded to proceed to construction in 2024, and robust cost estimates have not been developed for the rest (p2).

Cost drivers listed (p2): COVID-19 escalation; generic national rather than local rates in the original estimate; extensive utility relocation in the first 12 months of construction; a shorter construction season from May; a limited labour pool (some fly-in fly-out) and imported concrete and bitumen; no detour for about 36,000 vehicles per day through SH6/6A; no lengthy night works; and an enlarged intersection footprint to provide bus priority, walking, cycling and the bus hub.

Points 2 and 3 (p3, schedule p5): 13 documents are listed, from the 17 September 2020 Board procurement paper to BRI-2973 of 1 February 2024. Information is withheld under s 9(2)(a) (privacy) and s 9(2)(i) (commercial activities), and out-of-scope material is removed. The letter reproduces (as an image) an extract from the NZUP Governance Group update to the NZTA Board of 27 September 2023: the package is unaffordable within the funding allocation of $130 million, detailed design and costing is progressing for a reduced scope package, it will be highly challenging to include all the critical components, and options would go to the Investment and Delivery Committee in November (p3).

Point 4: The Alliance contract documents are withheld in full under s 9(2)(i) (p3). The letter notes the right to Ombudsman review and that the response will be published with personal information removed (p3).

Mass rapid transit: The letter says nothing about mass rapid transit. The SH6A corridor works between Frankton and Queenstown (item d) are among the deferred items.