Diggers move in so boats can get out
Diggers have taken the place of boats in Kaikoura as work starts to restore the harbour which was thrust up in the earthquake.
Whale and dolphin watching operators have struggled to get out since the disaster, which led to a seabed rise of more than a metre.
But following a Government announcement of $5 million in funding, contractors have started work to get the tourist operators back in the water, digging out slipways and preparing to dredge out the new sea floor.
Kaikoura District Council chief executive Angela Oosthuizen said contractors had finished levelling the main commercial slipway, which was used for whale watching and dolphin tours.
The work was being undertaken by the North Canterbury Infrastructure Recovery alliance, a collection of construction companies, Kiwirail and the New Zealand Transport Agency which was formed in the wake of the earthquake.
Contractors started work on the main commercial slipway last week, before turning their attention to the Kaikoura Boat Club slipway on Wednesday, both of which were located in South Bay.
Kaikoura Boat Club president Ted Howard said a 35-tonne excavator with a 2 metre-long tooth was raking rocks near the bottom of the slipway to break them up before collecting the debris.
Howard said the club had come to an agreement with the council to allow all private boats to launch from their slipway instead of the main commercial one to avoid disturbing the contractors.
‘‘We’re going to take all the noncommercial traffic that would have gone to the council ramp onto our ramp for the duration of the rebuild,’’ he said.
He said the work, which could only take place around low tide, was expected to be finished yesterday.
Once work had finished at the recreational ramp, Oosthuizen said contractors would focus on levelling the Coastguard Kaikoura slipway, also in South Bay, before they started deepening the harbour.
She said this would require the construction of a causeway for excavators to access deeper areas, which was being designed before dredging started in January.
Most of the material on the seabed would be removed using excavators, but Oosthuizen said some rocks further from the shore would be blasted using explosives.
The Government had committed $5m in funding for the restoration of the harbour, as well as passing a bill which made dredging a controlled activity under the regional coastal plan, bypassing lengthy consenting processes.
Encounter Kaikoura operations manager Ian Bradshaw said the seabed rise meant there was only a small window, two hours either side of high tide, when the company could safely launch its dolphin and bird watching boats.
In a regular season, its sightseeing boats could make three trips a day, but this had been slashed to one or two, which, combined with fewer tourists, meant the company had seen an 80 per cent downturn in business.
‘‘There’s a smaller number of tourists coming here to begin with, so as well as being unable to cater for normal customer capacity, that demand just isn’t there.’’
The work was estimated to take six months. – Fairfax NZ