Flood risk greatly eased
Project reduces risk of flooding at Moerewa
he $850,000 project designed to significantly reduce the risk of flooding at the bridge at the bottom of Moerewa’s Turntable Hill is nearing completion.
Northland Regional councillor Justin Blaikie, who chairs the Taumarere Flood Management Working Group, said the work should drastically reduce flooding that in the past had swamped a small but critical section of State Highway 1 at the bottom of the hill.
The project had been totally funded by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, because of the benefits accrued by keeping the bridge and its approaches open.
“While only small, the roughly 100m section of State Highway 1 that forms the approach to this bridge is a critical piece of Northland’s roading infrastructure, and a vital link to areas north of Moerewa,” he said.
The work, which had begun in January, had seen almost a kilometre of stream banks along the Otiria Stream benched to create large, controlled overflow areas for floodwaters. While the work would not prevent all flooding at the bridge, Blaikie said it should appreciably reduce the frequency of road closures.
“Prior to the work the area had a design level of just one year in two, meaning that the area would flood at least once every two years,” he said.
“Obviously the amount of rain that actually falls in any given year can vary tremendously, and no one has any control over that, but in theory the area should now cope with the sort of rainfall you’d normally expect to occur only once in a decade.”
He described the project as a great example of collaboration between local and central government to resolve a problem in a cost-effective way.
“I understand it’s also virtually a first for Te Waka Kotahi in that they have funded works not associated with actual roading infrastructure, like bridges etcetera,” he added.
He also paid tribute to Nga¯ti Hine kaitiaki Wiremu Keretene, who had watched over the project, and to lead contractors Far North Roading Group, which he said had faced a challenging environment due to the hard and very rocky ground, evidenced by the many tonnes of rocks that had accumulated in piles at the site.
“The rocks came from three lava spurs that pinched the river, like fingers,” he said. “The top layers were relatively soft rock, easy to remove with a digger, but got much harder the deeper into the lava flow, probably due to the slow cooling deep in the lava versus relatively quick cooling at the surface.”
While some of the rock had been used to armour the approaches to the bridge, an estimated 3000 cubic metres would be earmarked for future flood mitigation work.
March was the busiest bookborrowing month for Far North libraries since 2018, with 34,837 physical items taken out. And it was the busiest month ever in terms of digital borrowing, with 59,763 electronic items accessed, including e-books, audio books, magazines, newspapers, films and language courses. The Far North District Council also reported that monthly book borrowing by children and teenagers has increased up by 72 per cent since fines for late returns by child and young adult cardholders were abolished in July.