The earlier completion date had given the project team a “serious jolt”, said Mr Hadfield.
Ngati OneOne would want to be involved in the opening, said Councillor Aubrey Ria.
“We want an appropriate celebration of a beautiful asset,” said Mayor Rehette Stoltz.
“It’s been coming for a long time.”
Mr Hadfield’s written report said contractors would restart work at the end of April as there were delays with fabricating the waka.
The Hawke’s Bay supplier has considerable bridge work along with cyclone recovery work.
The open-air pedestrian bridge will be 6.3 metres above Kaiti Beach Road, and will offer views of Turanganui-a-Kiwa/Poverty Bay, from where navigators arrived here by canoe, waka, and ship over the past 1000 years.
The bridge is externally funded with a Lotteries Grant of $3.1 million ($2.68 million for the bridge and $389,000 for the Te Maro platform), and a Trust Tairāwhiti grant of $343,000.
East Coast Road
The restoration of East Coast Road was “running well” now the Awatere Bridge near Te Araroa was operating and allowing contractors unrestricted access, Mr Hadfield told the committee.
A major milestone for the contract had been completed with rocks placed along the foreshore at one site above the high tide mark.
That had allowed machinery to be used unhindered by the impact of tidal cycles.
Two further sites are to be completed.
Woody debris
Mr Hadfield said 193,000 tonnes of woody debris had been removed from waterways and 95,000 tonnes of it burned or shredded.
(The Government has allocated $37 million of funding to the Tairāwhiti region for the treatment of silt and woody debris.)
Some woody debris had been removed by the forestry sector.
The council’s project team has three treatment options — shredding (for instance, the city beach wood debris is collected and chipped offsite), placement of woody debris along existing sand dunes to mitigate sea erosion and high oxygen burning (at 600 degrees) which could burn 200 or 300 tonnes “on a good day”.
Contractors are exploring options to speed up the treatment of stockpiled materials.
Mr Hadfield said it had been suggested woody debris from Midway to the Waipaoa River mouth be collected and burned.
The council was “tending to go more to placing it along the dunes and letting nature play its part” but discussions would have to be held with the landowners.
Bridge rebuilding
The council has received $23m to rebuild between two and four bridges , the first being St Ledgers near Doneraille Park.
Bridge designers have been procured and the intention is to have this design work completed by May.
Staff are working through the consent process and have had “favourable discussions” with iwi and the community.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi has allowed the council to retrieve the steel beams from the damaged Hikuwai No. 1 Bridge on State Highway 35 to be used on the St Ledgers Bridge replacement.
As the replacement bridge will be at a new location, Rongowhakaata have been asked to provide a new name for the new bridge.
When the final tender price is submitted for the St Ledgers Bridge replacement, work can start on procuring the second bridge.
No decision on this second bridge has been determined and requires further prioritisation.
12 more bridges
The Herald ran a story last Friday about rebuilding bridges over the Hikuwai River north of Tolaga Bay.
A staff report said 52 bridges require major structural repair and Crown Infrastructure Partners was providing $17.5m to the project.
But Mr Hadfield said another 12 bridges had been added to the list after weather events in June and November.
Repairs for 20 bridges had been completed.
“Our goal is to have a selected panel of local contractors that we can distribute this programme of work through.”
Tiniroto Road
Mr Hadfield said there were two parts to reopening Tiniroto Road as an alternative route to State Highway 2 — a long-term component and an immediate component.
The staff report said a feasibility study would confirm whether the project could be delivered for $45m (of Crown Infrastructure Partners funding)
The alternative route is on private property and the council has landowner agreement to carry out investigations.
Professional service providers LDE and WSP are reviewing the existing Hangaroa Bluffs. Staff are to establish how much it would cost to safely reopen the Bluffs.
The goal is to understand the full life cycle costs for this section of Tiniroto Road.
“For instance, we could reopen the Bluffs but leave our operations team with a significance maintenance concern.”
Director of Community Lifelines Tim Barry said Tiniroto was “obviously a big news item and really an area of concern for the community in how we are going to manage conveyance between Wairoa and Gisborne”.
The council was under “operational pressure”. “We need a workable solution in the longer term.”
