Former deputy shocked at state of Clarence Battery steps
FURTHER improvements are being considered for the steps up to Clarence Battery, after it was highlighted that some of the steps were in a bad state.
The steps recently reopened after being closed for four years ago, after a landslip swept away part of the staircase.
Stabilisation work has now been carried out and the steps that were swept away have been replaced.
But after visiting the steps recently, former Vale deputy Mary Lowe said she was shocked to see that many of the steps were broken. She counted 17 that were damaged.
‘My understanding is that all of the steps are new,’ she said.
‘But regardless of that, starting from the top it’s all the way down. It’s not like a particular section where you have got some really bad steps.
‘It just looks dreadful.
‘There are just so many where the edges of the bricks have disappeared. That’s really shoddy work.’
However not all the steps are new and infrastructure officer Marco Tersigni said that the damage reported was historic.
‘The damage was already existent on those bricks prior to the new installation,’ he said.
‘Damage to the older section of the steps is also pre-existing and did not form part of the repair work as they were considered in an acceptable, weatherable, but serviceable, condition.
‘These older steps are generous and the step heights are modest, such that they have never been considered difficult to negotiate. However, further enhancements and maintenance works are being considered.’
After completion the contractor said that they were designed to last for at least 80 or 90 years.
