Council hoping for summer finish

Work at the Wharf St slipway is being done in three stages and the first two are finished. Photo/File

Wanganui District Council has its fingers crossed an upgrade of the recreational boat slipway at Castlecliff will be finished in time for this summer boating season.

Work at the Wharf St slipway is being done in three stages and the first two are finished.

Council property manager Rowan McGregor said the first two stages involved removing the collapsed concrete jetty and building a shellrock retaining wall, and then driving piles for the new jetty.

"But the third stage, involving building of the timber deck, has been delayed because the contractor involved has had a huge amount of work on recently," Mr McGregor said.

However, he said council was still hopeful the job will be finished before the summer season.

A local engineer was used to design and oversee the replacement slipway and those costs had already been budgeted for by council.

Mr McGregor said a recreational user group was still looking at options to fund the facility in future.

"The group had a number of meetings last year and some good ideas emerged to enhance existing, and provide some new, facilities.

"But planning had to go into recess when the port engineer we were using retired.

"As soon as we appoint a new port engineer, the group will re-convene to advance different options, have them costed and decide on the preferred option. And as soon as that preferred option is chosen then the next step will be to work through the logistics of a user-pay system to help pay for the upgraded facility," he said.

Beyond the issue of the slipway, Mr McGregor said Wanganui District Council Holdings Ltd, the council's commercial arm, was looking for a qualified port engineer.

"Many of the river management structures between the Cobham Bridge and the sea have not been maintained for decades. This includes port related structures, some of which were built in the 1880s and are looking the worse for wear.

"Some structures need major repairs now, while others may continue to carry out their function for up to 20 years."

Meanwhile, the district council and Horizons Regional Council were working in partnership on river erosion control at South Spit, each spending about $50,000 a year for the next couple of years and both councils will address future issues in their 10-Year Plans.

Mr McGregor said there were two challenges for the Holdings board around the state of the lower river and port infrastructure - money to do the work and the engineering detail of what best to do. And as well as needing expertise on the repair of existing structures, expertise on designing new structures was also needed.

"Many people in Wanganui have strong views on what needs to be done with a number of structures in the harbour area but because this is the area where the sea and river interact, it's an extremely complicated environment with a lot of natural forces at work.

"Often these forces are in conflict with one another and any intervention by a new structure, or making changes to something existing, has other consequences."

He said there were different design skill sets involved such as commercial wharves, breakwaters, facilities for leisure boating, wave and silt behaviour and channel training structures.

Council invited expressions of interest from experts asking them to make submissions and outline their experience, capability and fee structure and eight organisations responded.

"The next step is for council to set a preferred port consultant list for the various disciplines including a very experienced consultant, a port engineer, who would provide advice to the council, Horizons, Holdings or the port company on the overarching issues at the port and lower river.

"Who pays for the port engineer, who will be hired on an 'as and when required' basis, will depend on what the work is for, whether that's lower river, commercial port or recreational boating," Mr McGregor said.