Poneke Wellington's City to Sea bridge designed by Rewi Thompson and John Gray with sculptor Para Matchitt. Photo: Paul McCredie
Wellington City Councillors have voted to demolish the City to Sea bridge which connects the capital's waterfront and Civic Square.
A seismic assessment found the bridge was an earthquake risk - though some experts disagreed with that - and council staff deemed the $85m price tag for strengthening it too high.
They recommended the bridge be demolished and replaced by a large pedestrian crossing, with the option of building a new bridge in a future long term plan.
Councillors voted for that recommendation at Thursday's environment and infrastructure committee meeting.
Councillor Iona Pannett attempted to shift the decision to February next year, to give staff time to gather more information and develop a "cost effective solution" to strengthen the bridge.
But her amendment was voted down.
Committee chairperson councillor Tim Brown said those in favour of keeping the bridge lacked a "moral obligation" to people who could be standing on it in an earthquake.
Mayor Tory Whanau said she loved the bridge, but believed in the officers' advice, and the council could not afford the remediation.
The council's chief operating officer James Roberts said staff had already gathered the relevant advice and consulted with experts to arrive at their conclusion that the bridge needed demolishing.
"We would be rehashing ground we've already gone through," Roberts said.
Demolition was the cheapest option, and strengthening was not an affordable option within the council's budget, he said.
Earlier in the meeting, much of the discussion was centred on whether the bridge was considered "importance level 2" or importance level 3" (IL2 or IL3) under the building code - which is determined by risk to human life or the environment.
Officers told the meeting when Civic Square reopened they expected there would be more large events which would see at least 300 people on the bridge.
With that number of people, it was "clear cut" that it should be considered IL3 - therefore, in need of remediation, which was too expensive, they said.
But in public participation at the beginning of the meeting, an experienced engineer told the council the bridge was not earthquake prone - because only buildings could be considered as such.
"There is no legal requirement to strengthen it," said Bruce McLean, the man responsible for overseeing the construction contract for bringing the Town Hall up to building code.
McLean cited a report from engineering firm Dunning Thornton which he said offered lesser strengthening options - cheaper than the $85m council estimate.
Speaking on behalf of Historic Places Wellington, Felicity Wong said to demolish the bridge would be "civic vandalism".
There were a lot of options to fix up the bridge, but public consultation documents did not offer those options, she argued.
However, council staff later said the consultation document explained why remediation was not considered a "reasonably practicable option", due to budget constraints.
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