It is hoped a 3.8m-tall piece of public art will be installed in the Octagon by the end of May.
Dunedin artist Ayesha Green’s sculpture Ko te Tuhono was selected as the winning proposal by the Dunedin City Council from four finalists last year.
Ara Toi council initiatives relationship adviser Lisa Wilkie said Ms Green and her team, alongside council staff, were putting the final details into a resource consent application.
"Physical production of the artwork will commence once consent is approved."
It was hoped the artwork would be installed by the end of autumn, Ms Wilkie said.
"Work has started on three-dimensional mapping of the original carvings, which will be used to create moulds and then cast as aluminium panels for the work.
"To give scale, the Robbie Burns statue is 2.75m-tall and the central pillars of the Lan Yuan gateway are 6m high," Ms Wilkie said.
Details of the location within the Octagon were still being worked through.
Ms Green last year described Ko te Tuhono as a "gateway connecting us with our deep ancestral ecologies".
"It is a passage to our landscape, our life and the wairua [spirit] we share with the harbour ... when you move through Ko te Tuhono, you are inside and outside, you are coming and going.
"As a monument to our tipuna and our tamariki, Ko te Tuhono transcends time and place."
