Shifting sands of ratepayers’ cash
Like sands through the hour-glass, so are the bills to ratepayers.
Shifting 22 tonnes of sand at Oriental Bay costs Wellington ratepayers nearly $70,000 every year.
On Tuesday the Wellington City Council completed another bi-annual survey, measuring sand movement at the artificial beach.
The sand was shipped in from Golden Bay in 2004, at a cost of $7.5 million, to enlarge the beaches of the bay.
Council marine and coastal project manager Peter Hemsley said that because it was an artificial beach, the council needed to keep close tabs on how much sand moved.
‘‘We have a comprehensive programme in place to manage this.’’
Beach monitoring and consent compliance cost $26,500 each year.
Sand was surveyed twice a year at a cost of $12,000, and then shifted twice a year, costing $30,000.
The total annual cost of maintaining Oriental Bay’s beaches is $68,500 a year.
In 2015 new sand was shipped in from a quarry in Dunedin at a cost of $400,000.
Cuttriss Consultants undertook topographical field surveys of the sand and Tonkin + Taylor managed the monitoring and maintenance.
Without monitoring and shifting the sand would accumulate at the western end of the beach and spill out into the harbour where it would be lost. Surveyors plot its elevations to build a 3D model of the beach.
Surveyor Rachel Charlesworth said the topographical measurements were not limited to the sandy beach.
‘‘Our surveyor, Jeff Macphail, has to swim out quite far towards the fountain to get measurements, positioning a pole along section lines.’’
Tonkin + Taylor civil engineer James Moore said the orientation of the beach meant waves caused longshore sand drift from east to west.
‘‘As the beaches are artificial, there is no sand further around the coast to naturally replenish the eastern end of the beach.’’
Around the same time as the sand was shipped in from Golden Bay, the Freyberg Beach grass area was developed and a new playground built.
The project won numerous awards including the NZ Institute of Landscape and Architects Supreme Award and an Innovate NZ Gold Award.