Bund failure sent sediment into Waikato River
Construction company Hick Bros Infrastructure Ltd has been fined for discharging sediment into the Waikato River during construction of the Waikato Expressway.
The company has been convicted and fined $32,500 for discharging a large volume of sediment in January 2019.
The discharge occurred as a result of the failure of an earth bund that had been constructed to hold back water.
The failure occurred near Hamilton and initially impacted on the Mangaonua Stream flowing to the Waikato River.
The visual impacts on the river were significant, the Waikato Regional Council said in a statement released on Friday.
The sentencing outcome was released last week by Hamilton District Court Judge Brian Dwyer as a result of a prosecution initiated by Waikato Regional Council.
Judge Dwyer commented on the ‘‘excellent track record’’ of the company, but said this breach ‘‘demonstrated a certain lack of care or poor management practice which contributed to this event’’.
Waikato regional compliance manager Patrick Lynch said the expressway is an absolutely enormous project that has been very well-managed.
‘‘This was a single isolated incident by a reputable company, but it does demonstrate the extremely high level of care that needs to be taken in projects of this scale,’’ Lynch said.
Hick Bros Infrastructure Ltd is part of the alliance group that has been formed to coordinate and construct the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Waikato Expressway project.