A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
After much boatie consternation and council deliberation, the much-anticipated $3.7 million redevelopment of Gisborne’s inner harbour will soon get under way.
Phase one construction works will be in the road reserve and carpark areas, which the council says will include improved parking, seating and native planting. A walkway promenade withpedestrian crossings will also be developed.
It will mark a major step forward for the Navigations Project, as the first infrastructural building blocks finally take shape at what will be the key navigations hub . . . after 12 years of development, and with 20 months to go until the 250th anniversary of the arrival of James Cook and first formal meetings between Maori and Europeans here.
The project got a major boost four weeks ago when the Government announced a $1.27m investment to help Gisborne District Council with the construction of carparks and walkways in the inner harbour and on Titirangi/Kaiti Hill — in preparation for the October 2019 Te Ha commemorations — as part of $14.2m allocated nationwide to tourism-related infrastructure.
GDC has committed $5.3m and Eastland Community Trust $3.4m to the Navigations Project. The main tangible result so far for the public has been the completion of phase one of exotic tree clearance and native planting on Titirangi. There has been a lot of work behind the scenes, though, including the gathering of tangata whenua stories for the historical interpretations component of the project.
Allied and integral to the Navigations Project, the Cook Landing Site will hopefully also be redeveloped soon. The previous government committed $1.4m to this work, design plans for which will attract a lot of interest when the Department of Conservation, which administers this hugely important but unfortunately-treated national historic reserve, are finally ready to be made public.
A new concrete pathway, for pedestrians and cyclists, will also be added to the downstream side of the Gladstone Rd bridge this year. Estimated to cost up to $1.5m, this is an NZ Transport Agency project with no community funding involved.
