Unfinished tsunami evacuation bridges in Papamoa that have been without abutments for months will still be completed on time and budget according to Tauranga City Council.

Progress on the bridges poised over the Wairakei Stream has been stalled for months due to an ‘arithmetical' issue over the abutments but city parks manager Marie Gordon says they will be completed soon.

The tsunami evacuation bridge behind Calypso Drive, Papamoa. Photos: Daniel Hines.

'There was an identified cost issue with the abutment component so the project manager has been working with the contractor, and has gone through a quoting process just to reduce that costing component,” says Marie.

'In the tender documents there was an arithmetical error with the costing put on the abutments, and that needed to get resolved. It is being resolved at the present time and the project will be completed on time and on budget.”

The bridge structures were completed, and then work stopped causing comments among local residents.

Mount Maunganui ward Councillor Wayne Moultrie raised the issue at Monday's Projects and Monitoring Committee meeting.

From the council point of view the project is not yet delayed because it will be completed within the current financial year which ends June 30.

She can see how people looking at it from the outside might think the bridges were stopped without being completed.

'We just needed to fix that little issue before we got the thing finished,” says Marie.

'It's one of those things that happens when you are delivering a project, sometimes things go a little bit wrong.”

Like the Southern Pipeline Project, the Pilot Bay walkway projects, there would be issues arising, says Marie.

'When you are doing a development project there are sometimes things that don't work and you have to stop work and fix them.”

Project manager Cameron Warr says the council changed the design slightly, raising the bridges so they can also serve as evacuation routes in severe floods.

The extra height meant more fill is required for the abutments, and it would be ‘silly' to ask the contractor to complete the abutments for the tender price.

'It's no different to any other job, if things change, there's a variation or something you get other prices,” says Cameron.

'It will be let to whoever has the best price. We've discussed it with the contractor, they have provided a price and we are getting two others. It's just standard contract management from our point of view.”

So far $61,000 has been spent out of a total budget of $189,000. Three more tsunami escape bridges are planned for the Papamoa coastal area.