Ned’s Creek clear out to stem flooding
Some relief is en route for Murchison residents affected by flooding from a small creek that runs through the town.
Work got under way this week to widen, lower and clear out a section of Ned’s Creek adjacent to the recreation centre. However, one community leader has raised concerns the problem could be pushed downstream.
Ned’s Creek has flooded homes, garages and the grounds of the Murchison Sport Recreation and Cultural Centre over several years. In 2012, it flooded three times and Tasman District Council commissioned consultants MWH to model the flooding to better understand its causes. It pointed to vegetation blockage, insufficient channel, culvert and bridge sizes, and sediment build up.
In 2016, members of the Murchison and Districts Community Council told councillors the situation was serious and the community could not wait years for a fix.
Chairman Simon Blakemore said he believed fencing and planting of part of the creek from 2003 was partially to blame, with the
A potential solution to a flood prone Murchison creek leaves some still with worries. Cherie Sivignon reports
growing vegetation trapping silt and narrowing the waterway. He said the stream needed to be cleaned out, lowered and widened. The engineering services committee agreed to recommend the council spend $30,000 on the issue and the corresponding physical work on the creek started this week.
TDC utilities manager Mike Schruer said it was expected the job would be completed next week. Plants on the southern side of the creek would be removed to allow for the planned widening along about 400m of the waterway. A bund would also be built on the recreation centre side of the stream to help keep the water in the creek bed.
Engineering services committee chairman Stuart Bryant said he was pleased to hear the physical work was under way. It had been a ‘‘little bit of a challenge’’ but it was finally happening and he appreciated the work by staff.
‘‘Some of the people in Murchison will as well,’’ he said.
Blakemore said while the work would help with the problem, he thought it should have extended about twice as far downstream.
‘‘But this consent won’t allow that,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m very concerned the issue [of silting up] will move downstream.’’
Blakemore said he believed the problem of sediment build up and subsequent flooding highlighted by Ned’s Creek would be a problem in other areas where waterways were planted and fenced.
Schruer said additional related work such as an upgrade of the Fairfax St culvert was ‘‘quite a few years off yet’’.