Setback for harbourside cycleway as barrier munted, again
Thursday, 23 March 2023
One neighbour called it Pythonesque – the sight of a mangled mess of metal barrier smashed up against the road.
It was another chapter in the story of Eastbourne’s halting cycleway project that has had its share of knockbacks.
Wednesday morning’s huge swells smashed the wall of the two-metre-high metal stands leaving them in a broken heap. They were removed on Thursday.
The word ‘munted’ came to Nicole Maria Chesterman’s mind when she woke up to the tangle of metal in the sea outside her Marine Drive home.
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“I got up, looked out the window and thought ah, they are pulling it down, but then I suddenly realised, that’s not them pulling it down, it’s them pulling it up! I had to laugh. It’s got to the point where it is very Pythonesque. Every time they try to do something it turns up on its arse.”
Work on this section of the shared pathway started at the southern end of Days Bay last year. Smaller barriers were erected, but they didn’t last long.
Rough weather tearing up those barriers, the discovery of penguins and poor rock quality led work to be abandoned and moved to Windy Point.
The shared pathway project had already had an enormous budget blowout increasing from $30 million to $80 million. The council’s own proposed contribution had gone from $7.5m to $24.5m.
John Butt, who lives on Windy Point, was woken at 3:50am on Wednesday as the first 10 metres of wall came crashing down.
“I saw a domino effect of about 30 or 40 of those stands falling over.”
By morning, he saw the metal piled up in the water beside the road.
He wasn’t surprised.
“Looking at the design, it was adequate, but it wasn't stayed. It was like a tent that had been put up with a frame but no one had put any ropes to hold it down to the ground. The installation was grossly amateur.”
The only thing holding the barriers down was the kind of rope you use to hold luggage on a truck tied to the end of a post and wrapped around a rock, he said.
It was not the design he worried about but the lack of competence in how the work was being carried out, he added.
He said consultation with council was a farce with changes to the plan taking the community by surprise.
Eastbourne Community Board Poari Hapori o Ōkiwinui chair Belinda Moss said residents were disappointed and frustrated by what had happened.
“There have been similar projects at Otago Peninsula and already at York Bay with shared pathways, so it must be possible, and we hope the team work out how to do it soon.”
Jon Kingsbury, the Hutt City Council’s head of transport, said the wall of metal was just the skeleton of the barrier.
Had it been fully set up with additional weight before the huge swells it wouldn’t have been damaged, he said.
“The team monitor the weather forecast but as soon as it got to the severe swell warning it didn’t leave enough time to dismantle it, which takes two days. The health and safety of the workers is front of mind, so the decision was made to leave it.”
Kingsbury would not put a dollar figure on this latest setback as assessments were still being made. He said the costs would be absorbed in the budget’s contingency plan.
Work would start re-erecting the barrier at Windy Point. Locals will be hoping third time’s a charm.
The 4.4km shared path to be named Tupua Horo Nuku Eastern Bays Path was initially planned primarily for walkers and cyclists, but its design was modified so it could act as a seawall.