Coastal Walkway to Reopen in a Week

A section of the Coastal Walkway will fully reopen to the public in a week’s time.

Significant repairs to the sea wall in front of Woolcombe Tce began in mid-July. NPDC Manager Projects Team Jeff Bondy says the work will be completed and the walkway reopened by Friday next week (30 November).

“We’ve had this section of walkway open for public use on weekends during the construction period and the repairs were suspended during the school holidays so that people could use it during the week, but it will be good to have this section fully open once more now that summer is just around the corner,” he says.

The boulder sea wall from Venture Taranaki’s former building to the end of Hobson St was damaged in a big storm in September 2005 that coincided with a king tide.

The remedial work has fixed the damage, strengthened the walkway protection structure and also reduced the steepness of the boulder wall to enhance its resistance to storm damage.

“One thing we have found is that we need to extend the width of part of the boulder wall at the Hobson St end, to get the right shape to the wall that will disperse the sea’s energy properly,” says Mr Bondy.

“We’ve got a resource consent from Taranaki Regional Council, but we’ll wait until mid-February to do this work so that the walkway remains open during the busiest part of summer.”

This additional work will take between two and three weeks to complete.

The entire construction project will cost about $1.1 million – a significant saving on the $1.5m initially budgeted.