The future of Dunedin’s waterfront bridge will be decided next year after a review is carried out by Dunedin City Council staff.
In May, councillors decided to put the waterfront development project on hold in the wake of economic uncertainty caused by Covid-19, and withdrew from the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) process as a result.
Councillors yesterday agreed staff would work with mana whenua and other stakeholders to review the scope of the $19.5million architecturally inspired bridge that would cross the main railway line near the Dunedin Chinese Garden.
Council chief executive Sandy Graham said a review of the project was prudent to see whether the council wanted to proceed.
It was important to reconnect with stakeholders, she said, as the council did not engage with some as well as had been hoped at the start of the process.
A report with options will be presented to the council in May as part of its 10-year plan process.
Councillors voted 14-1 to note the update.
Cr Lee Vandervis was the opposed to the review, and said the project did not have a future having missed PGF funding.
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Comments
$20 million for a footbridge to nowhere? I vote hell no on that.
Queenstown had $20 million spent on their new bridge, longer, wider, over water and takes vehicles both directions at once.
How on earth can this pet project of select councillors cost this much?
If it goes ahead, heads HAVE to roll.
We don't want it, we don't need it, it's a waste of money and resources (and it is so ugly) so I expect the DCC to give it the go ahead.
"Council chief executive Sandy Graham said a review of the project was prudent to see whether the council wanted to proceed" so the ratepayer (you know, the ones who will actually pay for this) don't get any say in this?, with that kind of attitude It wouldn't surprise me if this gets the go ahead.
i think the bridge and the overall concept is brilliant. It will make Dunedin.
Dunedin is already "made" Nash. We have enough natural beauty to admire and experience without glorified concrete and the environmental impacts that it will have, to even try to 'enhance' the city.
Let's just sort the jolly infractructure, the pipes, the roading, the power poles, the drains, the footpaths, the recycling.....before we go anywhere near concrete glory structures. Dunedin and it's surrounds are arguably the most stunning in the country, it carries it's own weight in natural beauty in truck loads. Tidy up and correctly manage the basics, then indeed we will have the best wee city in New Zealand :)
"It will make Dunedin" a laughing-stock, a byword for wonky priorities, a cheer-up for ratepayers in the rest of NZ whose councils throw money around like confetti without being quite as silly as Dunedin's. Not laughing: Dunedin ratepayers whose rates already rise year on year faster than their incomes so rates take an ever larger proportion of their income. Not laughing: everyone forced to pay increasing costs for permits & every disguised council raid on our disposable income, at last trying to catch up on all the deferred core responsibilities put on hold for the sake of the stadium, and innumerable minor fancy spends like murals and Octagon sandpits and (slowly wearing off) embarrassing dots on the main street ... too many examples to list here.
Only in Dunedin do we see a council willing to choke a state high way, allowing only anything smaller than a bike or pedestrian to pass through!