Days Track to reopen after council backs simpler rebuild
A popular Nelson walking track will reopen after councillors voted to restore Days Track using a simpler design than originally proposed.
At its meeting on Thursday, Nelson City Council amended a staff recommendation before voting to restore the closed section of Days Track between Grenville Tce and Moncrieff Ave, reconnecting the popular Tāhunanui Hills route to Rocks Rd.
The original report estimated restoring the track to its previous standard could cost up to $700,000 of unbudgeted money.
Councillors instead backed a minimum-standard option, saying they expected it to cost considerably less while still allowing essential infrastructure and planting work to proceed.
Several councillors said the simpler design would face much the same landslip risk as a full reinstatement, making the more expensive option difficult to justify.
The track has been closed since August 2022 after heavy rain triggered landslips that destroyed timber stairs, buried the path and damaged stormwater and wastewater infrastructure.
A council report said the section sat within the deep-seated Tāhunanui slump, one of the country’s “most active landslip areas”, making it highly susceptible to future movement.
It said elected members needed to balance any potential decision to reopen the track with the costs of clean-up and remediation of the track when it gets damaged and rendered unserviceable, in a prolonged or moderate to severe weather event.
“This will not be an ‘if’ but a ‘when’ scenario.”
Despite locked gates and warning signs, the report said members of the public had continued using the closed track.
In a December public forum, the Days Track Community Group had raised their desire for the track to be reinstated.
Deputy council chief executive Alec Louverdis warned councillors the rebuilt track would remain vulnerable and called it “one of the most studied landslip forms” in the country.
The $700,000 estimate would restore the track to roughly its pre-2022 condition, including earthworks, a compacted gravel surface, modular stairs, service reinstatement and about 350 native trees.
“The planting and the cleaning up is around about $200,000. The staircase itself is probably about $200,000. There’s design costs, contingency and services which make up the rest.”
However, after questioning, councillors amended the recommendation after concluding a minimum-standard track would face much the same geotechnical risks as a full rebuild, making the higher cost difficult to justify.
Louverdis said the estimate included a substantial contingency because of the uncertainty of working in an active landslip area.
The decision followed another submission from the Days Track Community Group in Thursday’s public forum.
Spokesperson Kelly Atkinson said residents had received the council report only two days before the meeting after “almost no engagement” over the previous nine months.
“That is not meaningful engagement,” she said.
Atkinson said the report focused too heavily on reinstatement costs and risks while overlooking the corridor’s importance for infrastructure resilience, environmental management and pedestrian safety.
She said closing the track forced walkers onto roads with multiple crossings despite hundreds of new homes planned nearby.
“The community is not asking council to lower the risks. We are asking you to assess them properly before making an irreversible decision.”
Resident Anna Hickman said she had counted how many steps it took to cross the section needing remediation. “It took me 100 steps or paces,” she said.
“Keeping the status quo – that’s just not viable. Repairing the track itself is not that big of a job.”
Mayor Nick Smith said even if the council decided not to rebuild the track it would still face significant costs restoring damaged services, stabilising the site and replanting.
Deputy mayor Pete Rainey questioned whether simply rebuilding the track was the best long-term solution when future storm damage was almost inevitable.
“If we can send rockets to space, and then get them to land back on Earth, surely we can sort out a bit of infrastructure,” he said, suggesting a more resilient design should be explored.
Councillor Kahu Paki Paki said he remained uneasy about approving unbudgeted spending.
“Whenever we do something like this, something else has to go. It’s all about priorities and direction in our community.
“But from what I have been presented so far, I’m uncomfortably comfortable with it.”
Councillor Mel Courtney described Days Track as “a valued piece of Nelson”, saying it had connected residents with the waterfront for more than a century.
Councillors voted that once reopened, warning signs should advise walkers to avoid it during prolonged or moderate to severe weather.
The report noted the alternative route via Bisley and Moana avenues adds about 800 metres and around eight minutes to the journey.
The same section of Days Track was also badly damaged in 2011 before reopening in 2017 following repairs costing about $1.1 million.
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