Transportation operations manager Mike Costelloe said work on a $130,000 upgrade to the upper 1.6km section of Signal Hill Rd would begin next month.
The upgrades were designed to slow traffic approaching the reserve car park, and to discourage people from doing ‘‘burn-outs'' in the area.
Raised speed humps would be constructed on the road and a raised traffic island placed in the centre of the car park.
Sections of road would also be widened to aid pedestrians.
Council sports field and facilities officer Harold Driver said although security patrols visited the area, its secluded location meant people with cars could often arrive unobserved.
The reserve did not attract more graffiti than other reserves. Parks and reserves employed a full-time contractor to remove graffiti, and had spent about $10,000 on graffiti removal in the past 10 months.
The council had recently started keeping more comprehensive records of areas where vandalism occurred and the frequency of attacks. It tried to remove graffiti within 24 hours.
The effects of vandalism were illustrated last week by NHNZ managing director Michael Stedman, who said a sightseeing tour of Dunedin with a client was marred when the visitor, Dan Raviv, adviser to United States casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, was ‘‘confronted by a swastika'' at the monument.
‘‘He was totally shaken by it and talked about it for two to three days... for us [antisemitism] is remote... but for people of Jewish descent it's living history. The symbol was profoundly disturbing,'' Mr Stedman said.
- In 2005, more than 200 residents signed a petition calling for the council to introduce measures to slow speeding traffic.
