A fresh wrangle has broken out over ownership of a dilapidated pedestrian footbridge in Ravensbourne, amid fears the old structure could once again be facing demolition.
The bridge - believed to be one of the last in New Zealand to feature an Edwardian lattice-truss design - crosses the main railway line at Ravensbourne.
It has been closed since August 2009, pending repairs worth $274,000 to make it safe again, despite calls by the Chalmers Community Board for it to be reopened.
The repairs had been delayed while wrangling continued between KiwiRail, the Otago Regional Council and the Dunedin City Council, which share ownership of the land around the bridge.
Exactly who was responsible for the bridge was still uncertain this week, after councillors at the Dunedin City Council infrastructure services committee meeting on Tuesday voted not to accept ownership.
A report by council policy engineer Pieter Besuijen, presented to the meeting, said an agreement to accept ownership had been conditional on the bridge being in good order.
That condition had not been met because of the repair work required, discovered during a detailed inspection in 2009, which led to its closure.
However, KiwiRail spokeswoman Cathy Bell insisted when contacted the city council already owned the bridge, having signed a deed of grant with KiwiRail on October 15, 2007.
"Our people are fairly clear - it's not ours, it's the council's. They have taken over responsibility for it."
Council community and recreation services policy team leader Lisa Wheeler disagreed, saying when contacted the deed provided a guarantee of continued public access across KiwiRail land to the overbridge.
"The deed itself doesn't talk about ownership of the bridge."
Ms Bell was clear what would happen if the city council or the Otago Regional Council, which spent $50,000 partially repairing and raising the structure in 2006, did not accept ownership of it.
The unwanted bridge would be removed - allowing larger freight to pass - if nobody else took responsibility for it, she said.
"If neither one of them [DCC or ORC] wants it, it needs to be got rid of," she said.
Cr Andrew Noone - chairman of the infrastructure services committee - could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Cr Syd Brown urged councillors at Tuesday's meeting to decline to accept ownership of the bridge and "put an end to this saga".
This hard line was softened slightly, with councillors voting to reject ownership while a new working party investigated ownership issues.
The move concerned Cr Teresa Stevenson, who worried the decision could prompt KiwiRail to remove the bridge "tomorrow".
Ms Bell said KiwiRail had no immediate plans to do so.
Mr Besuijen's report said the bridge still had "significant defects", including a deteriorating wooden deck, supporting structure and parts of the steelwork.
It had since been concluded piles supporting the bridge would be "satisfactory" in the short term, subject to regular inspection, reducing the cost of repairs to $124,000 in the 2011-12 year.
The remaining repairs could still be required, but exactly when would be determined by the regular inspections, his report said.
Cr Brown said accepting responsibility for the bridge would be "imprudent", given efforts to reduce the rates burden during annual plan deliberations.
Spending on repairs was not budgeted and would go "straight on the bottom line", while there was a risk of further ongoing costs, he warned.
