Cathedral Square pavers replaced

Major works in Cathedral Square to replace roadway pavers with asphalt to improve safety was largely completed last week, after a temporary delay caused by wet weather.

All that is left to do is a small area of pavers between the tram tracks.

These must be removed and replaced in the near future — requiring special maintenance work prior to surfacing.

It will not, however, require any further road closures.

Background
At its December 2002 meeting the City Council considered a report on the Square which said work was needed on the road surface. It said there were two issues with the road’s existing granite surfacing — the pavers’ slipperiness when wet and the ongoing maintenance costs and structural failure of the road surface.

The Council voted to replace the granite pavers on all carriageways with asphalt and to have the work done progressively to match repair needs and the pavement-renewal budget.

The first part of this work was carried out in May, 2003. Concrete pavers would be considered on those parts of the carriageways “where indicated for aesthetic design purposes and where traffic conditions permit”.

The Council also instructed staff to recycle any undamaged pavers to be used on other suitable projects in future.

• The full report from the December 2002 meeting and the decisions can be found at www.ccc.govt.nz/Council/Proceedings/2002/December/StrategyFinance/CathedralSquare.pdf