Construction of a tsunami refuge at the Gordon Spratt Reserve in Papamoa is to be brought forward, with construction expected to beginning in the next financial year.

The vertical evacuation structure will cost $566,000 and is the only tsunami-related project that can be accelerated without incurring additional costs from other projects.

Work on a tsunami refuge in Papamoa will begin during the next financial year.

The council plans to go to public consultation on the initiative which, if it succeeds, will begin planning and design in the current financial year.

The decision to bring it forward comes from a briefing on tsunami evacuation routes last September

Building the infrastructure is budgeted at $2.9 million, with $1.1 million to be spent over the first three years of the LTP and a further $800,000 in 2019. The rest will be spent in 2021.

The timing of the spending is based on a report taking account of the timing of developments in Papamoa East, the timing of the construction to Te Okuroa Drive and a final interchange on the Tauranga Eastern Link.

Vertical evacuation structures are also planned for Wairakei East ($390,000) and Wairakei West ($764,000).

Councillor Steve Morris thinks the Gordon Spratt refuge will be about six-seven metres high. He doesn't know if it will incorporate the existing viewing embankments or the noise barrier on the school boundary, or whether they will build new ones.

The proposed height relates to the fact that the reserve is around five metres above sea level.

'The figure you are trying to get to is about 12 metres,” says Steve.

'There's some sort of calculation of how many people you can fit per square metre. But we are probably looking at a space well north of a thousand people - several thousand, in fact.

'We're going to space them out. Obviously 20,000 people aren't going to go to the same spot.

'As the new houses start pouring into Golden Sands and Palm Springs there will be another couple in there.

'They will either be using existing dunes that are at that height, the back dunes, or put some more on top to make it bigger. You are not going to have a big tower with a lot of stairs up it.”

'The refuges are just higher ground. There will be no shelters or supplies available.

'They're just safe spaces where people can go for a few hours.”

Bringing the refuge construction forward has come out of the special housing area discussion, says Steve.

If approved in the public discussion process, construction will start in the 2015/16 financial year, which begins in July.

'We are going to have the (tsunami warning) signs going up before Christmas by the sounds of things,” he adds.