Comments on: Kopua Footbridge Design

By: John

John — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:57:21 +0000

Is it cheaper to build a longer bridge, or is that why the cost has risen from the original $1.2m to $2.8m? Surely it must be cheaper to add height to the present causeway and keep the bridge at the same length and height (at present the walkway goes down from the bridge and it is that that occasionally floods, not the bridge). Why should ratepayers pay more for a bridge most don’t want?
I’ve not found a photo of the original bridge at high tide, so the photos make it look high, but the present bridge looks high at low tide too. Has anyone got a photo of the old bridge at high tide, or know what the profile was?
Most swimmers don’t jump from the centre, but from the Te Kopua end. How much higher will that be?
Why can’t Council just be open and make all the plans and instructions to the designers available? That way there’d be much less speculation, or do they have something to hide?

By: Peter Storey

Peter Storey — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:31:42 +0000

The bridge design best meets the wants of the Raglan community as indicated in the feedback given to Staff at the four open days.
The designers brief was to impact as little as possible on the townside walkway, to design a bridge that looks as close as possible to the current bridge (replicating the curve, but having less impact on the seabed… less piles). The bridge has been lengthened so it lands on the grass at the Kopua side which will avoid having to close it when the footpath approach floods during spring tides etc.
Given the exta length, the bridge had to be raised so as to retain the curve.

By: Michael Becker

Michael Becker — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:50:00 +0000

It would be nice to see the new design profiled against the current bridge. The detail in the small plan above isn’t sufficient.

The three issues for me are:

1) will the current walkway on the town side maintain its character;
2) will the aesthetic impact of the new bridge be as quaint as the current one;
3) is the bridge to be raised using our taxes for the benefit of a handful of fat cats who want to use larger boats from the Coast Guard jetty.

Saying that rising sea-levels require a higher bridge sounds intellectually cheap and lazy, in the absence of a plan to show how such a rise would affect the Kopua Domain.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:47:42 +0000

In regard to Michael’s comment I have now added a photo of the original Kopua footbridge to the article so people can see how high it was.