COP Planning for practice

The weather and the sea are not the only challenges in this project. "Maintaining public health and safety is a significant concern," says Dunedin City Architect Robert Tongue, "especially given that we are required to make sure access to the domestic and commercial buildings along the Esplanade and to the beach and dunes is preserved at all times."

St Clair attracts a constant stream of surfers, young families, joggers, walkers and cafe cruisers, so this will be no small task. Large holes will be dug in the road, ten metres apart, where the big anchor blocks that will hold up the new sea-wall will be buried. There will be large vehicles and machinery on the road and the beach. "The contractors will have some major health and safety issues to work through," says Mr Tongue.

The reality of what the St Clair Esplanade and beach will have to endure during construction may come as a shock to those who frequent the beach, the very people who are most passionate about its aesthetic preservation. Mr Tongue knows there will be strong reaction. "Keeping the public happy through all this will be very difficult. Needless to say, there will be continuous public consultation. But when they see the huge holes in the Esplanade, when they see the heavy machinery moving up and down the beach..." – he shakes his head. More public consultation is to take place about "extras" – if that is the right term for measures to enhance the Esplanade environment's aesthetic and amenity value. There are proposals to upgrade seating, lighting, footpaths, toilets, pedestrian areas and beach access, and to provide facilities such as parking and a playground.

"You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs," says Mr Davis, but he too indicates that this will be a particularly difficult site for contractors to safeguard against public risk.

Construction

The construction sequence and methodology, and the problem of maintaining public access to the beach and to the Esplanade Road throughout the project all have yet to be worked through. Mr Tongue says that contractors will be asked to put forward their preferred methodology.

They are likely to have different equipment and different approaches to various aspects of the work, including health and safety issues. They will also have to bear in mind the quite severe deadlines the DCC is placing on the project. It aims for completion one year from the beginning of construction (currently expected to start in August 2003); and furthermore, the Council also wants access to the St Clair Hot Salt Water Pool completed before it opens for the season in late October.

So far, the most controversial part of the planned reconstruction has been the proposed wave-calming devices to be built off the pool. The resource consent panel rejected the initial suggestion of building a 20-metre-long rock groyne out from the headland near the pool, to retain sand on the beach. St Clair has an internationally recognised surf break, and board riders strongly objected to the groyne, saying it would block a channel they and others used frequently, and increase the danger of people being washed onto the rocks. The panel did, however, accept a plan to attach large wave-baffling rocks around the edge of the pool. Local newspapers quoted concerned board riders who do not believe the rocks will withstand the regular five-metre seas without loosening and wreaking havoc on the pool; but, as no appeal was lodged against the final consent, only time will tell who has judged the proposal most accurately.