Kamo Shared Path progressing

The wooden boardwalk preserves the heritage drystone retaining wall. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The first stage of the Kamo Shared Path is getting closer to completion.

Whangarei District Council senior roading engineer Nick Marshall said the first stage, which stretches from Rust Ave to Cross St, is due to be completed by Christmas.

But he said the council was still waiting for the automatic gates for the rail crossing, which KiwiRail is ordering from Australia, and may end up installing temporary mazes, similar to the one in the Kamo Bypass, until the gates arrive.

"Therefore, we may not 100 per cent complete this section until early in the new year."

Mr Marshall said more than a month of poor weather had caused the main civic works to be delayed but contractors Broadspectrum had worked hard to claw back some of the lost time. The path is made up of pavers, a ramp, concrete and wooden boardwalk and concrete path.

Mr Marshall said the drystone retaining walls in the area were deemed to be heritage walls by Heritage NZ, so using a boardwalk had enabled the council to preserve most of the existing lower wall and all of the upper wall.

"A small portion of lower wall is removed to construct the ramp from Rust Ave up on to the lower embankment."

He said using a boardwalk also enabled the council to have a cantilevered and wider path extending out over the lower drystone wall without having to rebuild the lower wall.

Mr Marshall said without it the path would have been much narrower - about 2m instead of 3.5m to 4m.

The concrete boardwalk allowed the council to construct a cantilevered fence next to the Whangarei Club as a condition of the easement and a rockfall protection on the railway embankment side, which was a condition of the building consent for the boardwalk.

A Northpower fibre cable was struck 55m southwest of Vinery Lane in June, causing a "short outage for a handful of customers".

Northpower spokesman Steve Macmillan said the company worked with the contractors to restore service as quickly as possible so as not to inconvenience fibre customers.

Work on stage two of the path is set to start in November and will be completed in July/August of next year. This 2km section will run along the eastern side of the rail line, from Cross St to Kamo Rd.

The upgrade will include three intersection upgrades and four railway level crossing updates. Vehicles will no longer be able to cross the railway line at Wrack St.