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COUNCIL often comes in for criticism over performance, and the recent works from Bain Bridge to Pembrooke Road was no exception.
While most people have only praise for the 344m of new road, there's also been complaints about the cost - about $750,000.
That amount is enough to make anyone take a deep breath. But when I hear the same complaint from professionals in the field, it makes me wonder if council actually is suffering from public service mentality and operating inefficiently.
So I go to staff and ask questions.
Not always but mostly I come away satisfied with the answers - not in the sense of concluding council did a job perfectly, because there's always room for improvement.
But mostly I come away believing staff did the best job possible within the real-life limits of the situation, and better yet that there is a culture in council to actually recognise mistakes and learn from them.
No job is done in isolation, but in the context of procedures designed to ensure that every job is delivered cost-effectively - and that includes the question of whether the job is best done in-house or by contractor.
Some time ago council decided it would do small, high risk roadworks jobs in-house, contracting out bigger jobs where economies of scale can be significant.
Like it or not, that means council makes itself vulnerable to criticism by contractors, who don't know all the details and wrongly imagine they could deliver the same result at a lower cost.
In the case of the Bain-Pembrooke job, the biggest costs related to engineering: excavating 6,200m3 of unknown material, laying steep 1:2 rock batters up to 6m deep on both sides (protecting the road from flood erosion) and then stabilising the exposed material for road building.
There were also a lot of 'softer' issues - negotiating with the landowner, removing the old road formation, rebuilding to the new level, top soil and 700m of new fencing.
After detailed discussions with staff, I'm satisfied that council acted properly in deciding to do this job itself, and produced a cost-effective job in the circumstances.