Work on Moana Rua Rd slip

Encroachment by heavy seas checked

ODT By Allison Rudd on Mon, 27 Jul 2009

It was estimates $50,000-$60,000 had been spent at Middle beach in the past few days trying to protect rock mattresses laid at the base of the dunes, which had been exposed by last week's heavy seas, and trucking in sand dredged from Otago Harbour and tipping it down the face of the dunes.He estimated the width of the dunes had decreased by 2m-3m in the past two years.The end of Moana Rua Rd fell away last Thursday, and the face of the dunes was now close to a large fence erected in 2007 to stop people from using a dune-top track which has also since succumbed to the sea.

It was difficult to believe the Moana Rua surf club building had once sat between the end of the road and the beach, he said.

"When we demolished that [in 2001] there was a lot of criticism. People said it would have made a good restaurant. But the area it was sitting on does not exist any more."