Boardwalk Now secure

Pauanui's popular estuary boardwalk is now secure and ready to do battle with king tides, storms and most anything nature can throw at it.

Over the years, weather has taken its toll on the structure  and last year tidal flows lifted piles and left the surface  buckled and uneven.

The boardwalk is managed by the Coastal Walkways organisation based in Tairua. Coastal Walkways joined forces with the Pauanui to Tairua Trail Committee and formulated a plan to anchor the supporting piles.

Trail Committee Chairman Gary Fowler said joining the two groups made the job much easier and worked well.

"It was necessary to push the structure back into its original position," he said. "This was done using a barge carrying a digger which thumped the surface and piles into place."

Mr Fowler said there barge could only be used at high tide and this meant there was a limited working time each day.

"Special steel piles with a screw blade attached to the bottom were then screwed deep into the mud and the original piles attached to these using stainless steel wires. The blade piles made all this possible and we thank the manufacturers, Blade Piles New Zealand, for their assistance."

Council funds, some newly donated and existing money, and assistance from Storm, a local contractor and a team of volunteers made it possible to get the job done in time for the expected influx of visitors to Pauanui at Christmas, Mr Fowler said.

Blade piles sunk deep into the ground hold stainless steel cables attached to the boardwalk's original piles.