Town side of proposed Kopua bridge showing height of bridge above old footpath

There will be a one metre and twenty cm  step up to the proposed Kopua Raglan on the town side. Plans released by the Waikato District Council and bridge designer Aurecon show that the bridge will be well above the height of the old concrete footpath. Residents were promised that the proposed Kopua footbridge would be just 80 cm higher than the present footbridge. It appears that at its highest point the bridge is within this specification. As the boat channel has been moved closer to the town side, the bridge design is a lot higher on the town side than the present bridge is.
Although one of the design requirements was for the bridge to follow the curve of the present bridge, the proposed bridge design is skewed and unbalanced towards the town side. The plans show ramps on the footpaths north and south of the bridge for walkers to climb up the one and half metre rise. A retaining wall will be built around the pohutukawa tree in this area to protect the root structure.
Boaties will be happy with the design of the bridge as the boat channel at the deepest part of the estuary will allow larger boats to use the passage at low tide. The increased height of the bridge will allow the same larger boats to use the route at high tide.  Moving the boat channel to the town side will move the boats away from the jumping zone where children jump off the bridge.

The Waikato District Council is planning to increase its debt and borrow the 2.7  million dollars required to build this bridge.  At current interest rates this works out at a debt servicing cost of $170 a year for each Raglan ratepayer.

Submissions on the proposed bridge are now open and close on Friday 13 August 2010.

Please contact Louise Cowan at AECOM, telephone 07 834 8980, or call free 0800 492 452 if you have any questions about the application or click here for the full notice.

The full set of documents are available on the EW website.  Click here for them.

Any person may make a submission on the application. You may do so by sending a written submission to Waikato District Council, Private Bag 544, Ngaruawahia. The submission must be on Form 13. Copies of this form are available from Waikato District Council.

You must serve a copy of your submission on the Waikato District Council as the applicant, whose address for service is Aurecon, PO Box 9762, Newmarket, AUCKLAND 1149, Attention Sarah Hart, as soon as reasonably practicable after serving your submission on Waikato District Council as the consent Authority.

Submissions close at 5pm on Friday 13 August 2010.

Kordia’s plans to build a trans-Tasman cable have been shelved following Pacific Fibre’s announcement that it is partnering with Pacnet on a new international cable connecting New Zealand, Australia and the US.

“There’s only room for one cable across the Tasman and our project was always a trans-Tasman project,” Kordia CEO Geoff Hunt says. “Once they’ve (Pacific Fibre) got to a position where they can launch the project there wouldn’t be a business case to launch a second cable,” Hunt says.

Pacific Fibre announced yesterday it has formed a partnership with Pacnet, the largest privately owned cable network in the Asia Pacific region. Under the deal the two companies will share the estimated $US 400 million ($NZ 546 million) cost of building a 13,600km undersea fibre-optic cable with two fibre pairs with 64 wavelengths per fibre pair and a capacity of up to 5.12 Tbit/s.

Pacific Fibre plan to have the cable ready for service in 2013. But as Kordia has discovered, getting planning consent to land an undersea cable takes time and money.

Kordia has spent up to $2 million and 18 months carrying out marine surveys, speaking to local iwi near its proposed landing site south of Raglan, arranging for resource consents and consulting with the fishing industry. Hunt says they hope to sell that Intellectual Property to Pacific Fibre.

Hunt says he is disappointed that Optikor won’t proceed but he says the project has already achieved its goal of lowering the cost of international bandwidth to New Zealand.

“Just the threat of competition has caused a dramatic reduction in the cost of international bandwidth out of New Zealand, so you could say to some extent its already been successful and a more ambitious project with connectivity all the way through to the US looks likely to get off the ground. Overall I think it’s been a good news story,” Hunt says.

Cave on Nikau Walk at Pirongia - Image John Lawson

On the 4th August, Raglan Rambers visit Mount Pirongia for a walk through Nikau Palms and a brief venture into a cave, so bring your torch and lunch. The walk is about nine kilometres along the stream on the lower slopes of Pirongia to see the tallest kahikatea and squeeze through a short cave.

All walks start 9am Wednesdays from Wainui Rd car park (between museum and fire station). Car share at 10 cents per km to equate travel costs. Phone Seth on 825 8591 for more information.

Calling all artists interested in taking part in an art exhibition with a nautical theme:

NAUTICAL EXHIBITION Opening 23rd October and running until 3rd Nov including Labour Day Weekend at the Raglan Old School Arts Centre gallery. Advertising has been placed in ART NEWS, a national magazine being released on the 20th of August and in the events calendar of the New Zealand House and Garden October isuue.  The exhibition will also include Children’s Impressions of the Nautical Theme with local school entries for nautical prizes.

There will be a Fundraising Dinner for the Raglan Sailing Club with an Island Theme on October 30th.  Ticket presale, cash bar and a famous NZ comedian in attendance.

Please respond by email to Clare Wimmer wimmerc@maxnet.co.nz or by phoning Clare on 825 5155, or visit the Arts Centre on Mondays and Wednedays.