Contractors praised as Repair Milestone Reached

Contractors praised as Repair Milestone Reached

Media Release
28 January 2013

The thousands of tradespeople who have been working to repair homes damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes have been praised by Fletcher EQR, as Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee announces the teams have hit a milestone of $1 billion worth of work.

Fletcher EQR General Manager, David Peterson, says the repair crews have been working as hard as they can since the first major earthquake on what a uniquely challenging project.
At the end of last year another milestone of 30,000 full scope repairs was completed.

“Along with 47,000 emergency repairs and 18,000 chimney or other heating repairs the Canterbury Home Repair Programme has now delivered more around 95,000 repairs in total. The Programme is managed by Fletcher Construction business unit, Fletcher EQR, under contract to the Earthquake Commission.

Mr Peterson says the recent milestones showed the momentum being achieved and paid tribute to the many people involved.

“There are three groups of people who deserve recognition at this significant point; the homeowners and families we are all here to assist, the EQC and Fletcher EQR staff who carry out claim processing and project management roles to set up the repair work, and the independent contractors and their teams who carry out the repairs. The programme can be delivered only with the co-operation and understanding of all involved.”

He said Fletcher EQR also wanted to thank homeowners who are still waiting for repairs to begin for their patience. “The complexity of the programme and the need to balance resources, information and priorities has made it difficult to provide exact time frames a long way in advance of commencement.”

“We are now looking forward to a year of continuing progress, with a focus on the most severely damaged homes and on homeowners in the greatest immediate need. We are approximately one third of the way through the full-scope repairs, having come through the initial establishment period and the disruptions caused by continuing earthquakes and other factors.

With a more settled environment over the past year and hopefully continuing this year, we expect the remaining workload to be dealt with at a consistent pace.” With the expected work rate of about 100 home repairs being finished each work day (i.e. 2,000 per month) Fletcher EQR expects to be more than halfway through the programme by the end of this year and on track to complete it in 2015.

ENDS

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