District faces $20m repair bill

• Author: Kiri Gillespie
• Published date: 25 May 2023
• Publication title: Te Puke Times

The Project and Monitoring Committee meeting received an update on storm damage on Tuesday

A report presented to the meeting said its 10-year average annual cost for storm response activities was $605,000. This financial year, however, four extreme weather events had inflated costs, with replacing bridges and re-opening roads significant contributors. The total was expected to exceed $20m.

Usually, the costs would fall on the council and Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency, with the council paying 51 per cent by default, rising to 71 per cent when annual costs rose above 10 per cent of the roading programme, the report said.

The Government had promised to help fund “initial emergency works response activity” at 91 per cent up to June 2023 due to the cyclone’s impact on local roads in the upper North Island.

Deputy chief executive Gary Allis said the council was expecting a letter this week to clarify whether it was in line for any of the $941m the Government announced on Sunday to help cyclone and flood-hit communities in the North Island recover and future proof.

A breakdown of the district’s costs showed some of the most expensive clean-up works include replacing Bridge 83 on No 4 Rd at $8m, plus $1.2m for a Bailey bridge in the interim; $1m for an underslip on Te Puke Quarry Rd; and $1m for an underslip on No 3 Rd. The full breakdown totalled $19.07m.

Allis told the meeting the council intended to keep Te Puna Station Rd closed to motorists, or potentially open to one lane, because it would be too “difficult and expensive” to re-open both lanes. The cost to do this would be about $4m “and we would be struggling to justify that”. There would be community consultation before any decision was made, he said.

Council transportation manager Jim Paterson said that in terms of storm damage, it was a “very unusual year”.

“You can see the scale of the [storm] costs, and we are not at the end of the year yet. It just shows the pressure that has been put on the network and our contractors.”

Significant wet weather seemed “like it’s occurring every fortnight”, Paterson said.

“We are now seeing, with climate change, more instances of higher...