The committee recommended that the council "mitigate the worst areas" of the retaining wall above State Highway 1, which failed last winter mere months after the council spent $45,000 on improvements.
The work was supposed to improve the wall’s stability, remove leaning sections and re-establish drainage. Shortly after, part of the newly built section of the wall collapsed, along with an older section. Council assets manager Neil Jorgensen said the plan at present was to remove the top two tiers of the three-tier wall, originally built by the Oamaru Beautifying Society, "in a couple of sections".
"The idea is to remove, where the wall is overhanging quite badly, remove the top one or two layers of stone, and then put the kerbing back on, and then do some plantings around there to make it look good," Mr Jorgensen said after the meeting.
"If the wall is low, it is less inclined to fail later, so it really is increasing the life of the wall.
"If it’s successful, there’s no reason that can’t be there for another good many years. It really ties on with how successfully we can do the landscaping ... and make it look natural ... of course, it won’t straight away."
The estimated approximate cost for the work was listed in the report to the assets committee as $150,000. During its recently completed annual plan consultation, the council tagged $200,000 for the wall, to be funded from reserves and an internal loan.
At the assets committee meeting, Mr Jorgensen said to rebuild the wall to its former state would cost about $500,000, which was "not too bad a cost" considering it was an 80-year-old wall.
Oamaru ward councillor Jeremy Holding, who does not sit on the assets committee but was at the meeting, said it was a shame the council had not looked at options to raise funds to fully restore the wall, which was "distinctive Oamaru".
"That’s an Oamaru landmark that I would like to see preserved," Cr Holding said.
