Progress on Portobello Pontoon

Dunedin (Monday, 8 December 2014) – An agreement has been reached which means repairs to the Portobello pontoon will be underway shortly.

Depending on the availability of various tradespeople over the holiday break, the pontoon should be back in the water by mid-January.

The Dunedin City Council Parks and Reserves department has accepted a “without prejudice offer” from contractor Amalgamated Builders Limited to carry out the work needed so the pontoon can be used by the public over the summer.

DCC Acting Parks Manager Richard Dahlenburg says, “This offer means the process of determining exactly what went wrong, and where the responsibility for that lies, will continue, but in the meantime it ensures that the public facility is available for use.”

Amalgamated Builders will take account of repair costs until agreement can be reached by all parties as to the cause of the problem.

The repair work to be carried out is significant and would have to be done at some stage.

Later improvements may be required when the investigative process is complete.

Once the repairs have been completed, the pontoon will be pressure tested overnight to verify water tightness and then returned to Portobello. Updates on repair progress and timing for the return to Portobello will be given over the coming weeks.

The pontoon was removed in August after DCC staff were notified it was taking on water.

Since then, discussions have been held between staff, the consultant and the contractor to work out what had gone wrong, who was responsible and how to get the pontoon back in place and fully functional.

Mr Dahlenburg says staff have been working hard to make progress on the issues, especially given the community use of, and investment in, the pontoon.

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