Work on quay walls (North channel)

I also noticed they’re working on Fr. Mathew’s Quay. Looking good!

I’m not sure what they’re going to do when they reach the ‘wooden quays’ (not sure if there’s a term for them), given how shaky/rotten some of those appear to be.

i think it is all being done as part of the contract to repair the quay walls at the Mercy and at Wellington bridge.

They were removing the scaffolding platform from where they worked upstream of the cornmarket st pedestrian bridge. i think that they they just repaired around the quay steps there, and the scaffolding further downriver is also at a set of steps, so maybe that is what they are focussing on?

are wooden quays called wharfs? they are a real danger on the south channel, but could really become an asset to the city if they could be made safe

Thanks rofbp. There are repairs on Fr. Matthew Quay as well, where there are no steps, so I’m not sure how they’re selecting what’s to be repaired/cleaned.

I think you’re right about the wooden ‘wharfs’. (Wharves?) I have a certain vested interest here, I’ve a city centre apartment with no outside space whatsoever, but a little river-side wharf across the road. It would be a fantastic for residents in our area if you could sit down there, rather than it being fenced off as it currently is. The Georges and Alberts Quay wharfs could be great, if re-used for cafe/walkway space. Sadly, they’re in a fairly terrible state of repair, I doubt they can be salvaged and I doubt the money (or inclination) is there to replace them!

since i last wrote, the work has finished at pope’s quay, but for some reason, the have left the bottom level of the scaffolding in the water at each location.
seems strange to leave it there unless they are coming back to finish something else off later, but deferring completion seems odd too.

Works at the Mercy were stopped for last while, (maybe the builders’ holidays period)

The quay was reopened at Grenville place today, almost two and a half years after the quay wall collapsed.

The road side of the new wall looks quite well, although there is a thin sliver of stone added below the half-round capstone for parts of it, which makes it look quite ugly. You can just make it out in this photo:
[attachment=0:3gcqt2r7]IMG_2061.jpeg[/attachment:3gcqt2r7]

The wall is certainly higher than it previously was for parts of the replacement section.

Unfortunately, they have not replaced the capstone for a small section of the wall, leaving it as a flat top. I don’t know what happened the rest of the capstones: perhaps they were damaged or stolen when the stones lay unguarded for months?

The problems arise with the river side of the wall.
Some stones have been replaced with new smooth stones, which don’t match well with the old stone at all.
The worst problem however is the appalling pointing (i.e. not pointed at all!) done on portions of the capstone on the river side. Both the new stones and the pointing are visible here:
[attachment=0:2w2m88nt]IMG_2062.jpeg[/attachment:2w2m88nt]
How could a city council official sign off on this type of slovenly work, which was so out of line with the stonework on the road side of the wall?

Unfortunately you would get a better view of the new-old stone discrepancy from the opposite bank, but i didn’t have time to go across this evening.