Preparations under way to complete inlet walking circuit

November 23rd, 2011
[by David Armstrong]

The Link Park and boardwalk section of the path is depicted in red. The orange section is the just-completed Wharf Road path.

The final stage of Keep Motueka Beautiful's five-year plan to surround the Estuary Inlet with a walking and cycling path is just about ready to proceed, and should be completed in mid-2012. (See our earlier story.)

The path will connect the York Park and Link Park reserve area, just south of the Motueka Cemetery, with Wharf Road, using a few hundred metres of conventional gravel path and a raised boardwalk to clear the 100m section over estuary mud. (See the map, right.)

In the past few weeks, Tasman District Council staff have produced for KMB a plan for the path and in particular the 2 metre wide boardwalk, verifying initial plans by KMB's project manager Bob Cooke. Bob has met with some of the residents whose properties back onto the mudflat areas, and says they are generally happy with the proposals.

The cost of the work is estimated to be $33,000 plus GST. This will be funded in part by TDC but also from a donation which Talley's has indicated it will be happy to make toward the project. Depending on the size of that donation, TDC may need to wait until the start of the next financial year (July) to be able to fund its part from the Reserves budget. DOC rangers will build the boardwalk.

Resource consent will also be required and the process is already under way, but TDC's consenting officer says there should be no problem with that as the area which the boardwalk will cover is council-owned. Consent should be granted by about March next year.

When completed, this full circuit of the inlet will be a crowning jewel in Keep Motueka Beautiful's portfolio of improvements to our community's environment, and a testament to the drive and perseverence of Bob Cooke and his helpers.

The section of the inlet which will be straddled by the walkway

Comment by Philip Grimmett:
[Posted 26 November 2011]

Went for a walk when visiting Motueka recently on the new walkway on the causeway. Can't wait to do the completed walkway next year. The adopt-a-plot plantings have really grown since my last walk and make the new stretch along side the causeway seem a bit barren. Will there be any planting on this recent addition? Great work Bob and Co. Well done and thank you.

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