Whangarei's dog park to close while drainage installed

Whangarei Public Dog Park committee spokesman Tony Gill is happy Whangarei District Council is putting drainage into the park. Photo / File

Whangarei canine residents and their owners will have to make do with a temporary dog park for around a fortnight while drainage is installed at the popular Pohe Island site.

The Dave Culham Drive park will be closed from November 6 while drainage is installed around the park's eastern and northern fence lines.

Waste and drainage projects engineer Fiona Pratt said it should capture run-off from the road and direct it around the park.

"Drain coil will also be placed alongside an existing path in the park, from the entrance to the eastern end, allowing water that collects there to flow away," she said.

"Both these drain coils will discharge the stormwater into a swale drain outside the eastern end of the park."

Mrs Pratt said about 60 square metres of an area in the park will be stripped, replaced with a free draining topsoil and sown with a heavy-duty rye grass. This will be monitored over the next few months to see if it assists with the drainage issues.

The park is too wet and muddy during winter for work to be carried out to fix it but better weather and longer days has provided a chance to get the work done.

The work is not expected to take more than two weeks. In the meantime dog park users are encouraged to use the other dog park on Pohe Island, accessible from the Rock'n'Roll Club.

Whangarei Public Dog Park committee spokesman Tony Gill was very pleased to hear it was happening.

"Drainage has been the number one key for any development."

He is confident this is the first step towards more development.

He said the committee has been doing a lot of work to get this to happen and he also wanted to thank the council for its response.

Mr Gill said the park gets waterlogged in winter, and it has been an issue since the park was built.