‘OUR LEGS HAVE BEEN CUT OFF’
Restaurant owners at wits' end as repairs to vital bridge drag on but council insists it's doing ‘everything possible’ to get it fixed. Shayne Currie reports
Angry restaurant and bar operators are facing a huge drop in revenue over repairs to a vital pedestrian, tourism and business link on Auckland’s Viaduct. They are calling for more urgent action from the council — but even that will be too late to save some jobs.
The bridge’s two arms are permanently raised — as if in surrender.
The pedestrian footbridge — at the eastern end of Wynyard Quarter on Auckland’s waterfront — is broken. A lifeline that links the bustling Viaduct with the Wynyard Quarter and North Wharf eateries has been severed.
On a sunny late-morning Tuesday, in the middle of the school holidays, the eateries should be buzzing. Instead, barely a few dozen people stroll along this area of the waterfront.
Front-of-house staff at North Wharf’s restaurants, cafes and bars prepare for a lunch crowd that, in reality, will be around half the normal numbers.
At The Conservatory Bar and Restaurant, owner Tricky Hartley is with the operators of three other eateries — James Gardiner from Rushworth cafe, Alex Pearson from Wynyard Pavilion and Fraser Shenton from The Good Luck Coconut.
Each of them describes the huge impact on their businesses of the closure of the footbridge, with revenue down at least 50 per cent. On some days it’s as much as 80 per cent.
Last Sunday, says Pearson, was the worst day since the awful level 2 and 3 Covid restrictions — Wynyard Pavilion closed at 4.30pm when normally it would go into the mid to late evening.
The operators are now making difficult cost-cutting decisions: reducing hours for staff, opening late or closing early and, even worse for some, laying off workers. The operators fear some other waterfront eateries might close for good.
The Conservatory had a team of about 27 staff over summer — it’s now
having to pare that to 12 or 13, says Hartley. Restructuring proposals have started. Hartley says after years of disruption and building a great team, it’s gutting and heartbreaking.
The operators say pedestrians using the bridge and other foot traffic account for around three-quarters of their trade.
The bridge certainly carries a lot of people: in 2022 there was an average 6574 pedestrian movements each
weekday and an average 9094 movements on Saturdays and Sundays.
“It is incredibly challenging for our people,” says Hartley. “In hospitality, your people are your business and it weighs heavy on them. It’s very demotivating for them when they’re coming to work and there are no customers coming over the bridge.”
Gardiner, like Hartley, has been on North Wharf since its opening in 2011.
The bridge was a key reason they established themselves there.
“We’re a cafe,” says Gardiner. “We rely very much on people walking, running and cycling along the waterfront. The loss of the bridge, first of all temporarily and then lately permanently, has had a huge impact on our business. We rely on the summer. We particularly rely on the end of the summer to get us through the winter.”
Aside from the heartache, there’s also anger and frustration with Eke Panuku — the Auckland Council organisation that looks after this area of the waterfront and urban regeneration more generally — and what the operators believe to be “incompetent” management decisions that have led to the bridge being likely out of action until December.
They’re also fuming at what they
perceive to be a lack of communication, concern and empathy — criticisms that Eke Panuku rejects.
Shenton says: “We’ve weathered outbreaks, floods, cyclones, pretty much everything you can throw at us but apparently we can’t survive the council’s inept attempts at maintaining something.
“It should be a bumper summer, but our legs have been cut off.”
HOW, IN a first-world country built on a number-eight wire mentality, says Hartley, can a footbridge be out of action for the best part of a year?
It’s a refrain the eatery owners also hear from the public — a common comment runs along the lines that countries such as China and Japan would have fixed the problem in a few days or weeks.
The troubles with the bridge are extensive: from mechanical issues — winches, cables and other pieces need to be replaced — to structural issues — it’s prone to corrosion in the harsh marine environment and needs to be fully scrubbed before a new antirust coating is applied.
Problems started arising in
November. The drawbridge — its two spans lift up and down to allow boats to use the waterway — lurched through summer with various issues, forcing its temporary closure on some occasions.
On March 13, Eke Panuku closed it fully to begin a programme of work. It describes the problems over summer as “minor” with “very few days” when the bridge wasn’t working.
But it says it’s made the call to close the bridge fully and complete a full programme of mechanical and structural work — costing $2 million — “rather than dragging it out and potentially having more disruptions”.
According to well-placed observers, the bridge is unlikely to reopen until December — Eke Panuku will only say “late 2024”.
A new bridge, costing tens of millions, appears to be totally out of the question in an age of council and public spending cutbacks.
EKE PANUKU chief executive David Rankin says the organisation is doing “everything possible” to get the bridge working as quickly as possible.
He says he understands people’s frustrations. But, he adds, it’s not a simple job — it will require “complicated work with large components designed for a marine environment”.
He said a project team was “continually monitoring” the works programme to identify time savings.
“For example, we are investigating with our contractors whether it’s possible to have the team doing the sandblasting, remedying the bridge’s steelwork and applying the new antirust coating work double shifts. With one team working during the day and another during the night, it would reduce the overall time needed.
“We are also looking at the option of relocating the bridge offsite to carry out the works.”
Rankin says a “considerable amount” of the bridge’s mechanical structure is being replaced — and this is dependent on parts from Europe.
He says parts are being airfreighted from Italy.
“A number have arrived already and others are still in transit. The challenge is that parts for this specific bridge are no longer manufactured, so are not ‘off the shelf ’ items.
The structure itself also needs work. “It will be fully scaffolded, sandblasted, have its steelwork remediated and coated with anti-rust coating.”
So, in the meantime, what are the solutions for the frustrated eatery owners and other businesses who are losing customers, money and staff ?
The operators want to see water taxis operating between the Viaduct and Wynyard Quarter.
Eke Panuku is considering that option, and will make a call early next week as to whether it might proceed with a trial. But it’s also flagging “significant challenges” with the idea — health and safety, logistics, operator capacity and cost.
The operators also believe free car parking (over and above the first free hour at the nearby Jellicoe St carpark) should be offered in the Wynyard Quarter area, to attract customers.
Eke Panuku won’t commit to that, other than saying it’s talking to Auckland Transport.
Rankin says Eke Panuku has also considered a pontoon, swing bridge and a potential ferry stop in Wynyard Quarter “but none of these options are as good as the City Link bus”.
The eatery owners strongly disagree with Eke Panuku assertion that the Link bus is a good solution.
For a start, they say, it’s not convenient, in that it travels from lower Queen St to Wynyard Quarter. By the time people get to the broken footbridge on the Viaduct, they have to traipse all the way back to Queen St to catch the bus. The business owners think most people give up on the idea.
But Eke Panuku believes it has adequate signs on the Viaduct, warning people — before they venture too far — that the footbridge is closed and that the bus or an alternative 20-minute walking detour is available.
It says introducing more conveniently placed buses — as the bar and restaurant owners would like to see — is more complicated. Auckland Transport has told them it would be disruptive to the network.
“We ultimately need to factor in what ratepayers would deem as the best use of their money; and also take into account our priority is to get the bridge fixed as soon as possible,” says Rankin.
The 20-minute walking detour takes pedestrians around the back streets of the Viaduct — again, the operators say most people won’t and don’t bother.
Asked if Eke Panuku might consider rent relief — the organisation has tenancy agreements with 10 operators on North Wharf — it responds in a written response with a “no”.
“The businesses themselves remain fully accessible. We understand and appreciate that there is an impact on businesses from the bridge’s temporary closure, which is why we are working through plans for a destination campaign to attract people to Wynyard Quarter.”
But in an interview with the Herald, Rankin says they will consider any individual approaches.
“If any of our tenants are unable to pay their rent then that’s a discussion they can have with us on an individual basis.”
Back at the bridge at lunchtime last Tuesday, several workers are fiddling around with two hydraulic platforms. It is slow and laborious work.
Rankin: “Once we are through all of this, we will look at if there are any learnings from the way the maintenance regime has been carried out over time, but certainly there has been maintenance.”
In the meantime, the bar, cafe and restaurant operators are hoping for public support and understanding — and their custom.
“We’re not a ghost town,” says Hartley. “We still have people down here. We’re just not as vibrant or as busy as we need to be.”