Boats are being cleared from the marine precinct site in preparation for the construction phase, which could begin in the next month or so.

Project director Phil Wardale told councillors this week that two boats have been sold off on Trade Me over recent weeks, as well as a Land Rover and a winch.

The marine precinct site. Photo: File.

Contractors will begin clearing some contaminated soil from the site shortly after the consents are received, says Phil.

The consents are part of the Remediation Action Plan which outlines disposal methods and further post remediation testing.

Starting the major construction of phase one, the 6500m2 hard standing, sea wall and the reconfigured slip bay cannot begin until the travel lift is purchased.

The hard standing will be built around the former Hutcheson's slip bay which is going to be reconfigured into a 35m by 12m hoist bay. The seawall on either side of the slip entrance will be rebuilt as quayside.

At this stage the ultimate size of the lift is unknown. While it will be at least 200 tonnes, Phil is hoping by opening up expressions of interest to the second hand market, they can buy a boat hoist of far greater capacity.

The boat hoist's size and capacity will in turn dictate the engineering standards the rest of the hard standing will have to be built to.

There has been expressions of interest from four boat hoist suppliers - two in Italy, one in Holland and another in the US.

The short-listed suppliers will be asked to provide a list of machine options and configurations which will be evaluated before a preferred supplier is selected. The loading specifications from the supplier will allow engineering designs for the pavement and seawall to go ahead.

The project was approved in June 2014 with a $10 million budget split over two years.

This has now changed, with the majority of the spending now expected to take place in the 2015/16 financial year to better reflect the timing of the major civil works and travel lift procurement.

'The original split was arbitrary,” says Phil. 'We've reprogrammed to what we thought was the logical scheme with the bulk of the capital expenditure the following year.”

The city council funding for the project was contingent upon the precinct project also attracting $5 million from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Infrastructure Development Fund.

The timing of payments from the fund is expected to be known next month.

Also going into the precinct coffers are the proceeds from the recent sale of the cement site in Mirrielees road. The amount it sold for is not being made public.

'The project awareness and marketing completed in the last quarter of 2014 resulted in a number of further parties expressing their interest in the marine precinct,” adds Phil.

'These parties have been added to the Expressions of Interest register, which lists the parties who will be asked to participate in the Request for Proposal phase of the sale of further lots within the precinct.”

The RFP process will begin when preliminary works are completed, including the further geotechnical investigations required and the remediation of the site.

There are growing numbers of visitors to the website and Facebook page which has resulted in new and regular contact with the project team, says Phil.

The project team also continues regular engagement with the local and national marine industry by presenting at conferences and industry meetings.

'We will make sure no one in the district or across New Zealand does not know what is happening,” says Phil.