The Weeping Woman monument at the entrance to the reserve will likely be gone by the time construction begins. Photo / Bevan Conley
The Weeping Woman monument at the entrance to the reserve will likely be gone by the time construction begins. Photo / Bevan Conley
An $830,000 raised crossing project proposed by Whanganui District Council a decade ago could soon get the green light.
The Pākaitore Reserve paving and crossing is currently up for public consultation as part of the council’s Long-Term Plan, with design and planning to begin in 2027/28 and construction to follow in 2029/30 if it’s signed off.
According to the board’s submission, the council began work on the proposal in 2014, preparing a plan that was approved by the board and iwi representatives.
The original design features different decorative paved areas, with the raised crossing covering around 275sq m and paving around it covering around 309sq m.
Taupō Quay is also narrowed for around 30m and features concrete ramps at each end.
Whanganui District councillor and Pākaitore Historic Reserve Board member Josh Chandulal-Mackay said the crossing had been an aspiration for the board’s iwi partners for a long time.
“This is about re-establishing what Pākaitore was originally - a space right up against the banks of the awa and a space where our waka came down and traded,” he said.
“At the same time, the board and council are aware it is a significant cost. Part of the reason it’s budgeted for 2029 is that we’re trying to strike that balance between what we aspire to achieve and what we can afford.”
If the council goes ahead with the project, it will cost ratepayers $6 per property per year for 10 years from 2029/30.
The LTP consultation document said the project would restore the link between the land and the awa and provide a clear entrance point to Pākaitore and an established crossing for pedestrians.
However, it was unlikely to meet the criteria to receive New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) subsidisation and would need to be completely council-funded.
Chandulal-Mackay said a new detailed design hadn’t been worked up, but the budget took future cost projections into account.
“At the moment, what I’m interested in is securing a project which is about a raised crossing.
“Any additional design work, I would imagine we would seek that funding from external sources.”
The council was responsible for procuring services from the private sector and the budget was the amount the market expected, he said.
“If we don’t budget according to market expectations, we get no one tendering for the contract.”
The road is also an over-dimension traffic route, and according to the document, that wasn’t considered in the initial proposal.
Whanganui District councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackey. Photo / Bevan Conley
According to NZTA, an over-dimension vehicle or load is one that exceeds one or more of the maximum dimensions allowed for standard vehicles.
“Restricting these types of vehicles from using this path presents a risk,” the document said.
“In addition, archaeological authority was not granted in the previous application.
“These issues would be addressed before proceeding with our preferred option.”
A report on the project by council transport manager Damian Wood said the Heavy Haulage Association and the Automobile Association (AA) were previously strongly opposed to it.
Heavy Haulage Association chief executive Jonathan Bhana-Thomson said Taupō Quay was a route for heavy vehicles to avoid travelling through the city.
“We would need to have a conversation about the profile of [the crossing] - the height, the available width, what restrictions they want to put on it,” he said.
“There are a variety of design things that need to be thought through before we would consider accepting it.”
Bhana-Thomson said communication with the council had improved in the last year.
“I think things are better than what they have been, which is good, so hopefully they [the council] talk to us at a good time.”
In the 2014 design, the crossing overlapped with the reserve’s 158-year-old Weeping Woman monument, but that could be gone by the time construction begins.
The monument commemorates 15 Māori and one European killed in the 1864 battle with upriver Māori at Moutoa Island, 80km from Whanganui - “in defence of law and order against fanaticism and barbarism”.
Chandulal-Mackay said the board had agreed to an action plan which identified all relevant stakeholders, iwi and hapū, and it was engaging with Heritage New Zealand regularly.
“Over the next 12 months, we will be engaging with all those partners to make sure we have the decision right and, once the mandate has been firmly established, we need to determine where it’s going to be relocated.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.
