All our contractors will be shutting down from 23 December returning to work on 10 January. Our after hours contact centre will remain available around the clock, please reach out to us on (03) 440 0056 if there are any issues.

The progress of the pump station within the Clyde campground has been very visible over the last couple of months. After a delivery delay of the storage tanks, these have now arrived on site and have been installed and the excavation backfilled so we can reduce the site footprint.

Above: Arrival of storage tanks for the pump station at the Clyde campground.

Above: Storage tanks in place at the pump station within the Clyde campground.

Below: Wastewater pump station within Clyde Campground being filled in.

Initial work to establish the main pump station site has begun with the clearing of the area and felling of trees to start this week.

Above: Site preparation for the Clyde main pump station.

This week saw the installation of the public toilet block in Lodge Lane. We are working with a tight schedule to have it up and running in time for Christmas, but we are pushing on with the concrete surround and connection to power and the existing septic tank.

Below: Lodge Lane public toilet.

The pavers for the Town Square have arrived but won’t be laid just yet. We want to make sure the area can be used over the Christmas break so will be tidying up and laying aggregate rock as a temporary measure.    

You may have noticed the new power box in the town square looking a little shabby. Bear with us on this one, it’s a short-term appearance while the weathered steel ages. Given time, it will age beautifully and will match the other weathered steel features in the lane including the already aged bench legs.

Below: Weathered steel features within Lodge Lane.

Temporary street lighting (pictured below) has been installed in Lodge Lane to get us through the holiday period before the stylised heritage lights arrive. The plywood covers will remain in place until after the new year when the pavers will be laid.

Additional temporary bike racks are to be installed within Lodge Lane before Christmas to accommodate the influx of visitors arriving in Clyde.

Miners Lane is well on the way to be ready for Christmas. The new one way road will be sealed and open for use over the holiday period. The newly grassed reserve is looking wonderful and is crying out for a New Year’s Day picnic by the river.

The public toilet block in Miners Lane has been installed but will not be usable until the wastewater system is operational.

The planting along the embankment is completed and will become established over time.

Council recently went out to the community to share a concept design for a new play space for the Clyde River Park on Miners Lane and ask for feedback. 

Seventy-four people completed an online survey to give feedback, and three classes of students and the Enviroschools group from Clyde School shared stories, artwork and suggestions with Council. 

Those completing the survey were asked to give the concept a mark out of 5 stars and it scored an average of 4 stars, with a great deal of positive feedback from the community about its river and heritage theme, and the star piece of a climbing structure to mimic Clyde's iconic red bridge. 

Council's parks and project staff have worked through the feedback with play space design and build specialist company Creo and made a few design tweaks as a result. 

One theme that came through feedback was accessibility. To address this the designers have redirected the flow of the ‘pour and play river’ so it will weave its way on over to the swings to make the basket swing more easily accessible. 

The team also took on feedback about the slide’s orientation and will flip it, so it is not north facing, to mitigate the issue of it getting too hot in the summer sun. 

Other ideas and suggestions for improvements raised, which included extending the scooter track or adding additional play features such as a zip line or flying fox, were not possible to accommodate at this stage due to the project’s budget constraints. 

The team also felt that safety concerns would be allayed when people were able to access and see the site first-hand the result of earthworks and natural safety features that have been created – such as rock perimeter edging, retaining walls and natural bunds. Also important to stress is the fact that Miners Lane will be a one-way route and the playground design and installation will have independent assessor sign off that it meets NZ playground safety standards. 

The intention is to get orders in for play equipment this side of Christmas and the playground built ready for local and visiting children to play on it by May next year. 

Below: updated play space design. View a larger PDF of the revised concept. (PDF, 34MB) on Council's website. 

The Clyde Bridge on Earnscleugh Road will have temporary traffic lights installed over the Christmas-New Year period. 

They will be set up at both the Earnscleugh and Clyde approaches to the bridge and operating between Wednesday 22 December 2021 and Monday 10 January 2022. 

The lights are being installed to help control the predicted high number of trail users, as well as the expected increase in holiday traffic, so that everyone could negotiate the bridge safely.

CODC Roading Manager James McCallum said at this stage it is an effective temporary traffic management measure to help deal with those high volumes we are expecting, given the amount of bike traffic being generated from the Dunstan Lake Trail and the Otago Central Rail Trail, along with the usual amount of holiday makers and locals that use the bridge during that period.

Council had been approved funding for the operation by Waka Kotahi (New Zealand Transport Agency) recently and was investigating longer-term, permanent solutions for the increased use of the bridge, he said. 

Below: Aerial view of the temporary traffic light management plan at Clyde Bridge, which will be in place over the holiday period. 

Central Otago District Council shuts down from 24 December until 5 January, but our afterhours call centre is operational around the clock with crews on standby if there are any issues. 

We want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and restful New Year. We are especially thankful for your patience and understanding throughout the disruptions that have been part the Clyde projects throughout 2021. We look towards 2022 bringing about the completion and commissioning of our stage one wastewater reticulation system.