But what the bridge ultimately looks like will be decided by the council’s harbour area committee. Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher has indicated a design competition could figure in the bridge’s final look.
The drawings of the timber suspension bridge to replace the pedestrian bridge over the creek north of Friendly Bay — condemned in 2014 and demolished last year — were released so they were available to local designers who could "consider decorations unique to the Oamaru story", council roading manager Michael Voss’ report on the drawings says.
And even if "nothing is done" to further the bridge’s design "it’s going to look pretty good", Mr Kircher said.
"I think, aesthetically it’s going to make its own statement."
Mr Kircher said the bridge was an important link between two council-owned pieces of property — on the south side the well-used green space behind the Oamaru Creek penguin reserve would be connected to the historic place category 2 former Oamaru Freezing Works across the creek.
"We could have a bit of a competition about what people might do to take it from an ordinary suspension bridge and actually create something that’s a bit artistic, while still keeping the structural integrity of the bridge. Equally, it might be that we don’t get any ideas that we’re happy with and it goes up as is — and there’s nothing wrong with that either."
At last month’s assets committee meeting Cr Jan Wheeler appealed for the council to leave the bridge’s design alone and to consider only "maybe some lighting". Cr Guy Percival said the council should "leave it alone and get on with it", adding he would not back an increased budget.
The bridge’s construction is planned to begin before the end of June next year after the assets committee first began discussing a replacement in February last year.
Nevertheless, Mr Kircher dismissed the suggestion the project had been subject to lengthy delays.
"An ideal situation would have been to have it all planned before the last one came down, but the last one was basically condemned and there was a bit of toing and froing about whether it could be fixed, or not, so a chunk of that delay was due to that," Mr Kircher said.
In May, the Otago Daily Times reported the council committed to a new budget for the replacement pedestrian bridge of $112,000 if it could attract NZ Transport Agency funding.
Council roading manager Michael Voss said the bridge formed "an integral part of the cycleway link from the harbour through to the north end [of Oamaru]".
Funding was "available and allocated", he said. The cost to council would be 44% of the final cost, about $50,000.
