Lismore City Council held an all-staff meeting last week to update employees on the council's flood recovery of all of its assets.

As we have mentioned before, we are talking about a serious repair bill, northwards of $1 billion.

Council's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Brendan Logan and the Director of Flood Recovery Josh Hartcher provided an update on the details of the meeting so the community is informed about the upcoming construction journey.

Stage 1 was all about securing the funding for the assets that council is restoring. The good news is they have been agreed in principal with contracts being finalised and signed in the coming weeks.

"We've said a lot over the last couple of months that we can stop talking about funding and we can start talking about building, and that's what that means. The funding isn't going to be the issue now, we have enough confidence, whether it's actually signed off or about to be signed off, that all the money we need is going to be made available. So, no more talking about funding and plenty of talking about building," Brendan Logan said.

A critical negotiation point with the state government was changing the historical way that funding was executed. As we all know, the Lismore damage bill was unprecedented in terms of size and scale, so giving Lismore City Council (LCC) 75% of the money and then being paid the final 25% upon completion was never going to work in this scenario. In fact, it could have realistically bankrupted LCC.

"We've been very successful in negotiating that final payment to a very small percentage so that we're always cash flow positive, and the amount that might be withheld isn't of a material amount to put council at risk."

"To be honest, the details of why it's so serious is two dot points. It's not a huge amount of information. It's if you withhold this amount of money, council will be insolvent. You're never going to lose that battle. Surely, it was just getting some people with an open mind to say, okay, we accept that. Then, what mechanics do we have to put in place to deal with that?

Josh Hartcher added, "That's been the battle, getting them to accept it. It was May last year when we started hearing noises out of the RA (NSW Reconstruction Authority) saying why don't we try this? But actually, that coming to pass and being locked in was March this year, with the execution of tripartites. And then that's from the seniors, but getting the wheels of bureaucracy to implement that policy has been another six months.

"The analogy that I would use is that a funding body putting in a commercial term of withholding 25%, yet you've got to go and build 100%. You tell me a private sector contract where that exists? No one does that. And that was accepted. It just took 2023 and lots of meetings.

LCCs work in this space will help other councils negotiate funding with the state government in the event of future disasters, now the precedent has been set.

In terms of the complete flood restoration body of work for LCC, they have spent less than 10% of what they need to spend and detailed plans are in place that show the final element will be complete in 2029.

"You can't dive into something without a plan. So currently, the plan is to complete in 2029 because we've done all of our analysis and all of our scheduling," Mr Hartcher said, "We've got some really, really high quality, experienced people at 70 Carrington Street now. We've done a lot of analysis, taking into consideration workforce accommodation requirements.

"In terms of project starts, a lot of that was driven by an analysis of looking at some of those roads up in the catchment. Would you start one here (closer to Nimbin Road) and then have brand new infrastructure that gets smashed by construction traffic for two years while those projects get done? Or do you start back up here and then work back? So, a lot of that intellectual work has been established to go out to market.

"We're now moving into a strong procurement phase. It's going to be one of the largest contracts ever issued by local government in Australia, I would suggest. The aim is to get that executed this financial year.

"Once you've got that contract in place, who knows what efficiencies will be found. So, at the moment, the plans are 2029. I'm a civil engineer. I did a Master's in Project Management at the University of Sydney, and I've studied lots of programs around the country. I can give you a number of examples of where there was a plan, and they did it in half that time. It would be very dangerous for us to say we would be finished earlier. That's the goal at the moment."

If you think back to the two major roadwork projects on Nimbin Road to fix two landslips, they involved complex geotechnical solutions to stabilise the ground, not just for the short term but well into the future so it can withstand another major flood event.

When you look at the timeline over the next five years, LCC has to space its projects, or it risks taking a large part of the Northern Rivers construction workforce away from the private sector, meaning anything related to housing would suffer. The estimated number is 600-800 people who need to be accommodated somewhere.

"We have all of that forecasted out. I would need to look at the forecast, but if you have to pick a timeframe, it will be towards quarter three, quarter four, next year when construction really ramps up in that landslip area. We currently have, I think, 11 procurements underway, and there are 67 projects in the red section; that's where the majority of the capital cost is. But there are 270 odd projects we have to do before that. The idea is we're getting get everything else out of the way, so that then the managing contractor can focus on the landslips."

Everything else includes other parts of the roads program that aren't landslips, such as drainage, urban works, bridges, lots of road refurbishment projects, and miscellaneous projects. Then you've got the water, the waste, and the buildings.

Does securing funding mean we will finally see some action in the Lismore part of the Northern Rivers Resilience and Recovery Program? So, under water pumps, drain clearing etc.

"When the announcement was made saying we've got shovel-ready projects, let me give you the nature of what that actually looks like from my point of view, Josh explained.

"It's some words in a cell on a spreadsheet, which is an idea and a number that's been given to us. So, as a project manager, my first recommendation to my seniors was do not sign anything until we do some due diligence on this because you don't know if that two or three sentences can be achieved for that number.

"So, we've signed all the agreements now, but we didn't sign them immediately after the announcements because we've got to protect this organisation. I understand why that's difficult when a public announcement is made in that regard.

"All of those projects are in development and some of them are in delivery. Some of the drain cleaning is happening. We're liaising heavily with Rous on Hollingworth, but we have asked for an extension of time.

"We'll give you more detail and show you the breakdown of each of those projects and when they'll be finished as part of that whole schedule.

"The good news is that we are finding that most of the projects are feasible for those numbers. In fact, there's a bit of robbing Peter to pay Paul within the program to get better outcomes for Lismore."

Using local businesses to help rebuild Lismore is an important factor for Brendan, Josh and the team. With so much work coming online, they have looked at the application process and tried to simplify the process.

"It's the team's opinion that the form of contract that we were using is perceived as being too complex," Josh said, "So if I've got a couple of bits of gear, and I'm making money, I'm okay. I don't need to sign up for that big contract that I perceive as legally nasty and risky. I'm not going to respond.

"We've actually spent 15 months taking the contracts from this (points to a pile two inches high), to that (one inch), to that (a centimetre). In the state government, they're all like that (two inches high), and the State's got oversight of this, so they do the thud test with the contract.

"So, our delivery manager is working with our commercial manager, and we're going to hold an information session for the local contractors. We're going to bring in an expert on GC29 and explain how the contract works. All local businesses should not be scared of coming and asking questions. We are getting a lot of interest and we're getting lots of questions, then our commercial team responds to them.

Given the scale and size of the upcoming projects, of course, there are a lot of checks in place to avoid any impropriety.

"The reason our commercial team responds is because we have to operate within the state government's procurement requirements, so you've got to be very careful about how you respond. We have to assume every decision you make will cop the worst level of scrutiny. So, our commercial team is working hard on getting back to everyone and answering the questions we need."

The reason that the Flood Restoration projects are spread over the next few years is so the Northern Rivers workforce is not completely soaked up to complete these projects, leaving no trades left to fix and build houses and commercial properties and the day-to-day isues.

"We need local businesses to compete for our work. We have to be careful about not overcooking things and actually over stimulating the economy."

Brendan Logan said, "I've made that mistake before in the state government. I was given $150 million to fix showgrounds when I ran governance for Crown Lands. There's about 149 showgrounds around there. In places like Gunnedah and in the southwest of the state, I consumed the entire tradie market on the showground fix, and everything else stopped. The showgrounds looked great, but everything had stopped."

Josh added, "That's a good example. I come from Newcastle. You've got Rankin Park to Jasmine happening, billions of dollars. You've got the M1 to Raymond Terrace happening, billions of dollars. You got Hexham Strait Widening, I think that's $700 million. You've got John Hunter Hospital, I think it's just over a billion. All of these mega projects are happening at the same time. The same problem exists, you cannot get a tradie, and they need the houses to be built."

The supply shortage is not just tradies, it also involves the supply chain.

"We've actually had to help the state government convince treasury, or give the data that we've analysed this, that we have a supply chain that can deliver it if they put it in the budget. We're talking about those constraints around concrete, and they're very real. We have got to come up with innovative ways; you can't let the contractor work it out later. That needs to be dealt with during that RFP (request for proposal) phase. They understand how to get a supply chain happening for what's required."

One phrase we have heard a great deal about in Lismore is "Build Back Better". We have been told that the government grants are to replace like-for-like and, as Brendan Logan has said before, we want like-for-right, so there is more flood resilience when the next moderate or major flood hits Lismore.

Have the buildings been built back better?

Josh Hartcher said, "On the whole, yes. To the level it needs to be, no."

"Our job is to deliver outcomes, and I know that it's difficult for someone to hear that from me in the role that I'm in when you're local here, and it's two and a half years after the flood, but all the reasons why put aside, we have to focus on delivering outcomes, doing the best we can to address resilience or lack thereof, within the constraints that we have at the moment.

"We are starting to find that we have a lot more flexibility than we thought, but a lot of the scoping is already done for these projects. I'll give you an example. A lot of those roads up in those areas where it's a decent amount of topography, you'll have culverts under the roads, right? That culvert has a certain cross sectional area, and if the culvert, if it's too much water that falls on this part of the road, in the catchment side of the road, and the road acts like a dam. The water goes through the culvert. If there's too much, it overtops. Bye-bye road. That's the failure action that's happened in a lot of these cases. So, if you want to build more resilience, what do you do? You put more drainage in. But under the strict definition of the guidelines, that's not eligible because that's Betterment. Now, that doesn't pass the pub test to us. We have to fight tooth and nail for that."

What you have read may be difficult to digest in terms of Lismore's Flood Restoration rebuild, but it is refreshingly honest. We are getting honest answers from Lismore City Council so the community understands what is involved over the next five years.

Brendan and Josh have promised to sit down and share more information on the details of the Flood Restoration projects, such as water, waste and buildings.