Clearing the way

Contractors work to cut up and remove a large eucalyptus tree in Portobello Rd, near Glenfalloch, on the Otago Peninsula.

Nearly 50 trees on the peninsula, including eucalyptus and cabbage trees, are to be cut down over about two months, starting this week, to make way for a multimillion-dollar peninsula shared walking and cycling path.

Many cabbage and eucalyptus trees along a 4km stretch of Portobello Rd near The Cove will be removed so the road can be widened, a new rock seawall built and the path installed.

Dunedin City Council transport group manager Richard Saunders has said a comprehensive landscape plan would be started once the work had finished, which included replacing established trees with large specimens, within a major vegetation and planting programme.