Safety check before lanterns rise again

The lights on Wharf St fell to the ground when the brackets they were secured with pulled out of the wall.

The new Wharf St Dining Precinct lanterns will not go back up until a report from a structural engineer into why the fixings failed is completed.

A string of Wharf St's plastic lanterns fell to the ground on August 29 about 3am.

The lights were erected as part of the precinct which saw the street transformed to a one-way road and an outside eatery with themed furniture, story boards of Tauranga's history and overhead lights.

Marcel Currin, communication advisor for Tauranga City Council said Downtown Tauranga had a structural engineer assess the safety of the lanterns.

"The engineer's preliminary assessment was that the building masonry was most likely at fault, not the installation or fixings. The remaining lanterns were removed as a precaution and a full assessment was to follow."

Sally Cooke, Downtown Tauranga manager, said the engineer's report was awaited.

"Obviously when something happens, we go straight back to the structural engineer to allow him to assess what happened, and why it happened and how we address the situation and how we get the lanterns installed again ... to ensure the incident was isolated."

Ms Cooke said the plan was to have the lanterns back up in the air in the next few weeks.

The same company would be used to put up the lanterns, she said.

Early indications showed there were no problems with the workman ship and the lanterns were very light so weight was not an issue, she said.

Crown & Badger duty manager Sarah O'Grady said none of her staff had seen how the lanterns fell down but the incident left cracks in the outside perspex of the establishment which provided coverage for their outside diners and had to be replaced.

Ms O'Grady said when the lights suspended above the Crown & Badger fell they left a big hole in the side of the building.

"The whole thing came out and ripped a hole in the side of the building. We have no problem with them being there, but obviously if they are going to be dangerous and fall down it's not a good thing."

Ms O'Grady said the eatery supported the initial idea of the dining precinct but had concerns over the time it took to suspend the lanterns and the noise from the machinery putting them up "which scared quite a few customers for a couple of weeks".

"Surprisingly they got them back down within two nights, which was quite impressive considering how long it took them to go up."

Inhey Kim, owner of Takara Japanese, said no one saw how the lights fell down but he thought they added atmosphere to the street.

"We are looking forward to when they put the lights back up, since they have done all the events there has been more people. Normally the side street there isn't many people so it's good for the city all these events," he said.