Chief executive Kevin Winders said Port Otago was lifting the professional standards at its Dunedin wharves to the same standard the company maintained at Port Chalmers.
In order to manage access to the city centre wharves through gates, fences were being erected around the company’s facilities.
Work was starting in Fryatt St, out in front of the T/U sheds where smaller cruise ships berthed — a boat shed connected to the Port Chalmers Maritime Museum was last month transported and re-purposed as a new cruise-ship terminal.
Ten cruise ships berthed there this year and the company expected 20 next year, Mr Winders said.
"We’ve doubled the volume coming through, which is great, but we need to make sure we are looking after the safety of the passengers getting off, and there’s good gate management.
"And we don’t want any unintended transport movements in there from the public."
After the T/U sheds, work would move on to the X/Y sheds, at HarbourCold, Rattray St wharf, Birch St wharf and conclude at Kitchener St wharf, likely by the end of June.
The fencing would stop cars driving into an operational area, which happened "on a frequent basis". It would also reduce free parking in Fryatt St.
Cars often parked on Port Otago property in the street, but after the fence was installed cars would only be able to park parallel to the new fence.
However, it also noted "maritime security" concerns.
Gates into Port Otago managed areas were more frequently being left unlocked by third parties that accessed the sites, it said.
"We must lift our standards to be compliant with the level of security required for cruise and other international ships.
"The main change is to ensure we prevent unauthorised access to our port and restricted areas, and to ships moored at our berths.
"Fencing and automatic gates allow us to control and record who is within the port security area."
Visiting ship crews would be issued with PIN numbers that only worked on specific gates for the duration of their stay.
Public parking would remain along the entire length of Fryatt St, but only on the public road and re-configured as parallel parking, as it was along the Rattray St wharf.
"This will mean unauthorised public parking on port land will no longer be available."
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