Work has begun to rebuild part of the Otago Youth Adventure Trust's Berwick camp more than a year after about a third of the camp was destroyed by a landslip.
Trust chairman Brian Pickard said before the rebuilding was approved, a full geotechnical site survey was required.
It had been a "long and sometimes slow process" gathering engineering reports and ground stabilisation information, but all confirmed the site was safe and building consent had been approved.
The work to be carried out will include ground stabilisation work on the land behind the building which is owned by Wenita Forest Products.
Mr Pickard said most of the work would be covered by insurance although the trust had to pay $20,000 excess and would need a further $25,000 for the remedial ground work.
There would be "very little change from our $500,000 cover", he said.
At the time of the dramatic early morning landslip in May last year, several vehicles were trapped but there were no injuries to the 42 Red Cross emergency response team trainees, who evacuated the building before it began to move.
The building work will restore the six boys' bunkrooms, the sauna and a workshop and storage area.
Warden Jenny Scott said the camp had been back in business for most of the last year although, even with squeezing in extra beds, had only been able to cater for about 50 instead of its usual 65. Usually, it caters for about 2500 visitors a year.
"We have lost a few groups just because it is not big enough, but most of the schools have been truly wonderful."
Mrs Scott said many had missed the sauna: "I didn't realise it was so popular."
She expected there would be some rivalry between boys and girls over the new boys' accommodation. which would be built to a higher standard than the original buildings, which date back to 1983.
However, the new rooms would remain designated for boys because the male toilets were at that end of the building.
It is expected that the work should be completed in three or four months.
Mr Pickard said since the landslip the trust had received $9000 in donations including those from Rotary clubs in Milton and Dunedin, Taieri Lions Club, Galloway Cook Allen and a bequest from former Berwick resident Ray Spencer.
"There's an awful lot of goodwill out there," Mr Pickard said.
As a non-profit organisation which had three ageing facilities to maintain and develop, the trust was always in search of extra funding, he said.
A major recent project had been replacing the roof at the nearly 40-year-old Tautuku Outdoor Education Centre in the Catlins which cost about $150,000.
The Sutton camp, near Middlemarch on the site of the old Sutton school, also required maintenance. A new cycle trail is being developed on that property.
