After months of pressure from a group of Bunbury boat owners, the City of Bunbury council voted 10 to 2 last night in favour of raising the height of the Koombana Bay footbridge 1400 millimetres at an additional cost of more than $499,000.
Tuesday night’s decision was a backflip from a vote in June 2016 where council was nine to one in favour of installing the new Koombana Bay footbridge at the same height as the previous bridge.
At that time, council staff reported that a working party formed in 2014 to identify community requirements for the upgraded footbridge had recommended it not be raised, feeling it would create potential conflict between a number of the City’s key priority area objectives.
But in July of this year, a group of boat owners began to lobby council to change that decision.
After presenting their case to council and holding a Saturday morning rally in the CBD, a group of 50 concerned residents attended a special electors meeting a fortnight ago to lobby council members for a change in the bridge height.
Chief petitioner Noel Seymour said a number of boat owners were concerned that if the new bridge was built at the same height as the former railway bridge, pieces of safety equipment on boats would be damaged.
“At high tide there is not enough clearance under that bridge and with boats getting bigger, these vital pieces of safety equipment are being damaged,” he said.
“It’s a passionate issue for myself and we can’t afford to be trapped at sea, unable to communicate in an emergency because our equipment has been damaged.”
Last night’s decision to raise the bridge 1400 millimetres higher than the original level will come at a cost of $499,455 plus GST and will delay the completion date of the project until January 31, 2018.
Bunbury Yacht Club, Halifax Crane Hire and Piacentini and Son have written to Council as a group to offer a funding commitment of $140,000 towards the additional costs of the project.
The Mail understands the balance of the funding required will be provided by the project contingency money and the Asset Management and Renewal Reserve.
Bunbury businessman Colin Piacentini said in his letter to council the Leschenault Inlet was a “jewel in the crown of Bunbury, smack bang on the doorstep of the CBD”.