Pohara walkway/cycleway: band rotunda concerns “will be taken into account”
Artist’s impression of the proposed shared pathway to the Pohara sea front. Photo: Supplied.
A crowd of more than 30 assembled at the Pohara Hall last Thursday to have their say on the $340,000 walkway/cycleway intended to make the stretch of road between the Pohara camp and the hall safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Except for the short stretch passing the band rotunda, the walkway/cycleway will be 2.7 metres wide. This will give multiple users and users moving in opposite directions plenty of room to pass each other, said TDC roading manager, Gary Clark.
The most contentious aspect of the plan concerns the rotunda. The plan showed that the walkway/cycleway would be incorporated into the rotunda, taking 1.6 metres off the front of it and fundamentally changing its appearance. Private individuals, Takaka Citizens’ Band representatives and the Golden Bay Heritage Group spoke at length about the heritage value of the rotunda, praising its age and describing its importance as a piece of Golden Bay’s built history.
The meeting decided by a large majority to recommend that the rotunda be left intact, apart from losing the step in the front. The walkway/cycleway will necessarily become narrower at that point.
Mr Clark said that he was happy to take away the feelings of the meeting and gave an assurance that they would be taken into account when the plans were being revised.
People at the meeting also discussed the means by which the walkway/cycleway would be kept separate from the road. Mr Clark spoke strongly in favour of a form of physical barrier because he said it would provide a greater degree of safety for pedestrians and cyclists and act as a traffic calming measure. The form of barrier used will need to be at least partially removable to allow contractors to clear sea-borne debris from the road at times.
Mr Clark said that council staff wanted to “provide an engineering solution that isn’t hard engineering because whatever is constructed needs to be in keeping with the environment there.”
He agreed that, as far as possible, existing trees should be left intact too.
“It’s a very harsh environment,” said Golden Bay Community Board chair, Joe Bell. “The trees that have survived to that size deserve a bit of credit.”
Explaining the cost of the project, Mr Clark said that the rock-wall work component was “a fair chunk” of the $340,000 budget.
Neil Wilson
