After the floods, are some Sounds roads ‘sustainable’?
Some flood-damaged Marlborough Sounds roads might never be ‘‘put back’’, a roading boss has conceded, as an engineering company is brought in to look at the long-term ‘‘levels of service’’ to isolated communities.
Marlborough Roads manager Steve Murrin told Okiwi Bay residents, at a flood recovery meeting last week, that the Marlborough District Council had been told by Waka Kotahi it needed to ‘‘create a network back in the Sounds that is sustainable’’ if it wanted more funding.
‘‘Before we can do repairs, we need to undertake the study to see what level of service and how we are going to put these roads back, if in fact we are going to put the roads back,’’ Murrin said.
‘‘There’s probably going to be some places in the Sounds that we might not be able to put the road back.’’
Meanwhile, the council last week approved getting engineering consultants Stantec NZ to investigate Marlborough’s roading network.
Council chief executive Mark Wheeler said the Stantec work was all about the long-term future and ‘‘how far we go’’.
Wheeler said any changes to the level of service in the Sounds would have to go out for public consultation, and nothing was ‘‘predetermined’’.
‘‘It will look at the economic and community effects on different levels of service. Do we go further? Make it even more resilient? That’s the sort of thing they will be addressing,’’ Wheeler said.
‘‘Once all of that comes forward . . . we look at alternative access proposals if we do have any.
‘‘It’s really significant for those communities, if there are changes to level of service, so they need to have a say.’’
Nearly 4000 faults had been identified in Marlborough’s roading network as a result of four days of heavy rain in August. That number was still growing, and was more than double that of the damage caused following heavy rain in July 2021.
Waka Kotahi agreed in 2021 to give the council more than $80 million to help fix the region’s roads. Following the August deluge, in 2022, the council asked to use some of the money it had left over to help repair the more recent damage, which it considered a ‘‘priority’’.
The upcoming Stantec study was a condition of reallocating the Waka Kotahi funding.
It would look at the cost of repairs, climate change, land stability, safety, alternatives to road if necessary, community and economic impacts of access changes and housing land stability risks.
In a separate report presented to the full council, Wheeler also warned Marlborough could face further storms, and repair costs, due to climate change. This would require significant rates increases.
At the Okiwi Bay meeting, where Murrin was fronting up along with recovery manager Dean Heiford, residents were given the chance to voice their concerns.
Two similar meetings were held in the Kenepuru Sound, which Murrin said had ‘‘copped the worst’’ of the damage, on Thursday.
Okiwi Bay Residents Association chairperson Tim Greenhough said after the meeting they just wanted to see some action now the council had heard their concerns.
‘‘[But] They have a heap of miles to do first, we’re only one community,’’ Greenhough said.