After 150 years of being encased in mud, and three more years bathing in a chemical solution, parts of a historic manuka causeway found in Dunedin may soon be ready for public display.
The pedestrian causeway - believed to date to the 1850s - was described as a find of national significance when discovered during excavations for the Wall Street shopping mall in June 2008.
About 60% was deemed too rotten to save, but the rest had been soaking in tanks of polyethylene glycol ever since, overseen by wet-wood conservation expert Dilys Johns, of the University of Auckland.
The solution was a water-soluble wax designed to soak into the timber's cell structure and provide support when water was removed by drying.
Asked for an update yesterday, Otago Settlers Museum director Linda Wigley said some of the surviving wood was expected to be ready by September.
The rest, it was hoped, would be ready early next year.
Some of the wood was to be returned to the Wall Street mall, to be displayed under a glass floor housing a photograph of the real thing.
Ms Wigley said another section would form part of a display inside the refurbished museum, showcasing the causeway and other finds discovered during excavations at the Wall Street site.
"There was lots of other material found in association with it, so we're creating quite an interesting display about the whole site, not just the causeway," she said.
It had been hoped the remains might be strong enough to be displayed by mid-2010, but regular assessments since then had continued to push the expected date back.
"It's not the kind of process that you can hurry up," Ms Wigley said.
