Planned new stopbank in Waiohiki breaks ground

A karakia was held at Waiohiki this morning to mark the start of enabling works to build a new one-kilometre stopbank along the Tūtaekurī River and help protect the community from future flooding.

The Waiohiki community was hit hard by Cyclone Gabrielle — one of New Zealand’s largest natural disasters — with flooding from the river and sediment inundating and damaging homes and parts of the Waiohiki Marae. Forty-five properties were subsequently categorised as 2C as part of Central Government’s land categorisation process.

The development of the planned stopbank, which will run from Redclyffe Bridge to the Napier Golf Course, will help to mitigate the risk of future flooding for the area, providing protection for a 1-in-100-year flood event (at post-Cyclone Gabrielle levels), and enabling it to be recategorised to Category 1.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Chair Hinewai Ormsby said, “It was a significant and emotional time for our community to have works start on the site where we saw the flood waters run through; one of many veins that left Waiohiki as an island. Building community resilience is at the forefront of our mahi and this scheme will help to future proof Waiohiki.

“Without the enormous collective effort of our community, Ngāti Paarau Hapū and Waiohiki Marae resilience staff, local landowners, experts, Ngāi Tahuahi and Regional Council staff and contractors, we wouldn’t have got this project off the ground so swiftly. We are extremely proud and humbled by how we all have worked together.”

The Waiohiki project is one of six flood resilience projects being delivered by the Regional Council, part-funded through Central Government’s North Island Weather Events (NIWE) funding. Regional Council Chief Executive Nic Peet expressed his thanks to the Crown and its funding body, Crown Infrastructure Partners, for their financial support of these important resilience projects.

“Across the region we are working to rebuild vulnerable communities post-cyclone, and our partnership with the Crown to deliver these projects is invaluable.”

Regional Council Senior Project Manager Harry Donnelly said it was pleasing to reach this point in the project, “This morning was a great opportunity to come together with the community and our project partners to bless the site and mark the start of physical work.

“It follows months of partnering and engaging with the community on the options, as well as extensive modelling, a cultural impact assessment and several assessments and investigations, including geotechnical, archaeological and ecological. We look forward to continuing to work together as we build this new planned stopbank and improve the community’s long-term resilience.”

Enabling works for the project include building a new road under the Redclyffe Bridge and a stockpile/storage area nearby for the limestone and material that will be used to build the stopbank and supporting infrastructure.

As well as a stopbank, the Waiohiki flood mitigation project will involve realigning the Upokohino Stream into ephemeral wetlands and removing vegetation by the Redclyffe Bridge.

11 November 2024

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