The Kawatiri Coastal Trail runs along the wild Westcoast of NZ joining Westport to Charleston. This 50km trail incorporates wild coastal scenery, native bush and wetlands. Martin’s creek is a small tidal estuary and wetland area and will become a popular picnic and rest area on the new trail.
Abseil Access won the tender to design and build this unique structure alongside the trail and boardwalk build team Westreef. Gaining access to the site was complicated by the tidal nature of the surroundings and the sensitive wetlands.
While carefully considering the surrounding landscape, main cable anchors of concrete were deadmen buried in the soft ground. This concrete was poured using a helicopter, requiring careful coordination between the pilot and ground crews. 20mm IWRC 316 stainless steel main cables were implemented to support the 10 tons of deck and a potential 120kN live load.
All fasteners, plates, dropper cables and wind cables used on this project were 316 stainless steel, and all timber is H4 treated to meet a design a life of 25 years minimum in a harsh coastal environment.
