“Town Hall may need scaffolding for years | Otago Daily Times Online News (odt.co.nz)
Construction hoardings and scaffolding around Dunedin’s town hall complex could be in place for more than five years while remediation work is carried out.”
The Municipal Chambers only took 2 years for the entire build.
The Town Hall itself took less than 2 years to build, foundation stone 3 March 1928 – opened 15th Feb 1930 and was built without any debt!
From Wikipedia “The City Council’s profits from its trading departments during the 1925-1926 South Seas Exhibition enabled it to undertake the project and pay for it with cash”
Lee Vandervis - lee@vandervision.co.nz 
Local government characteristically follows precedent, like the public service. But some cities have had imaginative mayors who looked for new and better ways to do things. For example, in his heyday, Tim Shadbolt livened up Invercargill with zero fees at the local polytech. Antanas Mockus, a former mathematician, became mayor of Bogota, capital of Columbia, and changed things for the better enormously.
Quoting Wikipedia: In 1995 he was elected Mayor of Bogotá. Under Mockus’s leadership, Bogotá saw improvements such as: water usage dropped 40%, 7000 community security groups were formed and the homicide rate fell 70%, traffic fatalities dropped by over 50%, drinking water was provided to all homes (up from 79% in 1993), and sewerage was provided to 95% of homes (up from 71%). When he asked residents to pay a voluntary extra 10% in taxes, 63,000 people did so.[6]
(continues…)
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antanas_Mockus
Wow, 2 years to build, 5 years to “remediate”, with all the available technological advancements. Says it all about how dysfunctional DCC is.
Also reminded me the sad story about old Caversham Tunnel that is locked for “safety reasons”.
Year and a half to build the tunnel, with technologies of 1870’s. And it’s still structurally sound, by the way.
Dunedin Tunnel Trails Trust is advocating for reopening the tunnel for walkers and cyclists since 2008. Not to build , just reopen.
https://www.dttt.org.nz/timeline/
Of course it’s still locked. Because it’s DCC, they can’t just reopen it without burning few millions $. Current timeline of completion is 2028-29 :
https://www.dunedin.govt.nz/services/roads-and-footpaths/projects/dunedin-urban-cycleways/dunedin-tunnels-trail-project
Thank you, DCC (not really).