General Manager Scott Stewart answered Dennison’s “respectfully disagree with a “respectfully disagree” of his own and asked Council to sit tight while staff tried to round-up all the cats involved and somehow find a way to herd them all onto the stage.
You didn’t think this was going to be a smooth, no hitches or glitches occasion did you?
The pilings that keep the trestle in place have to be cut at their base so that the trestle can be taken out. The surest sign that the pier is very close to completion.
Meanwhile the pier itself is coming along just fine. Dennison did wonder aloud if the reason for not having the public out there on the Thursday was because the structure wasn’t going to be ready. No – it will be ready assured Craig Stevens, Project Manager for the pier project.
The construction team has begun to take out the trestle that has sat beside the pier since the early days – that was the platform on which the crane toppled back in 2009 which brought to the surface all kinds of problems that delayed the construction, required the city to re-tender the project when the original contractor said the bridge couldn’t be built with the plans he was given and for the money that was on the table.
During that period of time we saw some mighty fancy dancing on the part of the political class.
But a pier we are paying for and a pier we are going to get.
