Breakwater repairs will use up WDC budget

UPCOMING work on the 1872 Heritage New Zealand Category 1 Oamaru breakwater will use up the Waitaki District Council’s annual budget of $400,000 for accumulated breakwater repairs and maintenance.

Road Metals was contracted to supply, deliver and place 1500 tonnes of rock, on the seaward side of the breakwater, about 90m north of the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony fence, council acting assets group manager Michael Voss said.

The $60,000 project, to begin next week, was identified as required after an inspection of the breakwater in November last year.

The latest round of rock armouring would protect areas of the breakwater that had sustained ‘‘significant concrete deterioration over many years of being battered by harsh sea conditions’’.

Earlier in the financial year, which ends on June 30, $340,000 had been spent on repairs and maintenance, including a $130,000 project to rock armour the breakwater at the Ramsay’s Extension.

The current round of maintenance work would take three weeks to complete, weather permitting, Mr Voss said.

PHOTO: HAMISH MACLEAN Heavy load . . . As waves crash into Oamaru’s breakwater, work is scheduled to begin on another round of breakwater repairs next week. The Waitaki District Council will have used all $400,000 of its annual maintenance budget on the Category 1 historic structure this financial year.