The City to Sea Bridge is a landmark to tourists and Wellingtonians alike.

A landmark Wellington pedestrian bridge could be demolished over concerns about its structural integrity.

Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard MacLean confirmed demolition was one option being considered for the City to Sea Bridge, the city's main pedestrian connection between Civic Square and the waterfront.

"The main structural issue is that the piles do not extend fully down to bedrock," MacLean said.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF The new Ferns orb sculpture by Neil Dawson being raised in Wellington's Te Ngākau Civic Square, exactly three years after the original was removed in 2015.

"We are currently investigating any necessary remedial action."

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Councillors were told about the concerns at a workshop in May.

Three options were presented for the bridge, one of which involved strengthening work and the other two involving complete demolition.

The City to Sea Bridge was labelled a "public safety issue" in the presentation, a tag council spokesperson Richard MacLean dismissed.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Issues with the bridge have been raised with council officials since 2009.

That was in relation to concerns at the time which had since been clarified following engineering advice, MacLean said.

While acknowledging structural issues with the bridge, MacLean said it was not an earthquake risk pointing to its 40 per cent New Building Standard (NBS) rating and strengthening work that took place in 2010.

In a reply to a separate Official Information Act request, the council said an engineer's report commissioned to "determine what further actions were required from a public safety perspective" would be released in October.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF A council spokesperson said ''remedial action'' to fix structural problems with the bridge were being investigated.

Stuff requested a copy of the report but it had not been provided with one by time of publication.

Council officials were first made aware of issues surrounding the bridge in 2009.

Urgent measures were then taken to "prevent an unexpected collapse" of the bridge, according to a 2011 letter to the council from Carl Ashby, then of engineering firm Spencer Holmes.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF A letter written in 2011 said a ''cost-effective'' method was chosen for strengthening measures on the bridge but issues remained.

Ashby wrote that work to fix many of the structural issues with the bridge would have been "difficult and expensive" so a "cost-effective" method was chosen to strengthen the building to 40 per cent of code and remove the earthquake-prone status of the bridge.

"Critical design weaknesses meant it was difficult and expensive to strengthen the bridge to current full code levels as this would require substantial foundation work and upgrading of the seawall," he said.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Demolition of the bridge was presented as one of three possible options for the bridge.

If the City to Sea Bridge is demolished it would mark the end of the line for a landmark well-used by tourists and locals alike.

Opened to the public in 1994 the bridge's history can be traced back to the 1980s when the Wellington Civic Trust ran a competition to find a solution to the separation of the city from the harbour.

Architects Rewi Thompson and John Grey were chosen to design the bridge but it would become more well known for sculptures of sea life and birds created by renowned Hawke's Bay artist Paratene Matchitt.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF The council said' 'public safety'' concerns raised about the bridge had been dismissed in the latest engineering report.

​Matchitt was well known for his work combining modernist art with Māori sculpture.

The two timber whale sculptures at the bridge represent Ngake and Whātaitai, two taniwha who broke free of the lake they grew up in and created Wellington Harbour in the process.