Repair works to crumbling harbour walls in Weymouth have been delayed until next autumn – to avoid disruption during the next holiday season.

The project, at Nelson’s Wharf and the Ferry Steps, at the Pavilion end of the harbour, are now expected to start at the end of September 2019, rather than as originally proposed to start in February, finishing in May.

Part of the project will involve piling which would be heard, and felt, in nearby buildings and will also lead to some road closures.

A planning and conservation area application was submitted for the project in July and is expected to be determined during December.

Site access, highways, footpaths and parking arrangements have been agreed in principle and the approach to isolating or diverting pipes and cables crossing the site before the start of the main contract has been assessed.

Hoteliers in the Devonshire and Poultney Buildings, closest to the ferry steps works, were briefed at the Pavilion in June with a further meeting held earlier in November.

Harbour management board members are being told at a meeting on December 5 that the original proposal, to start work during March, would have led to completion during June 2019, which would have been disruptive to the local holiday trade and harbour operations.

The new timetable anticipates a return of tenders on December 20 with an assessment of the tenders being completed on January 14th followed by a recommendation to the borough council management committee on February 5th and, if approved, an award letter being issued on February 22, with work to start on September 30.

The project will also see the demolition of an existing dilapidated ice cream kiosk and, once completed, will see a new flight of harbour steps put into place.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council say the section of wall, made of sheet steel in 1960, is badly corroded.

A report before councillors in August said that the steel piles and the outer ends of the tie rods are now corroded and are considered to be overloaded and at risk of failure.

Inspections also found numerous corrosion holes in the piles which has allowed “localised loss of limestone fill material into the harbour.”

The work will include building a line of new sheet steel piles driven into the harbour bed directly in front of the old wall, the gap between will then be be filled with reinforced concrete and the combined structure will be anchored using the existing tie bars and anchor beams.

The area is on land reclaimed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by constructing the harbour walls and filling behind them to improve landing areas and railway access, and to provide land for development and the port infrastructure.

Said a council report on the engineering proposals: “In the prevalent ground conditions it is unlikely that piles of the required size can be driven by “quiet” methods, using hydraulic rams to push them in, so the piles will probably be driven initially by a hydraulic vibrating hammer and then, when necessary, by hydraulic impact hammer. The piling sequence, noise and vibration monitoring and mitigation measures will be developed to minimise noise, disruption and the risks of damage.”

The council at the time said that it hoped to start the work at the beginning of February 2019, finishing it in May 2019, in time for the main season.