Two recently-let contracts collectively worth roughly $500,000 effectively mark the start of summer works as part of a wider $15-million, several-year upgrade of the Awanui River flood scheme, the Northland Regional Council (NRC) informs.
According to Te Hiku constituency representative Mike Finlayson , NRC had formally awarded both contracts to local firm Kaitaia Contracting Limited earlier this month, on 4 December.
Work on both contracts would occur concurrently and while some initial ‘enabling works’ were being carried out in the lead-up to Christmas, work would begin in earnest in the New Year and is expected to run until the end of March.
The first $213,000 (GST-exclusive) contract involves repairs to a roughly 500-meter stretch of undermined stopbank behind Kaitaia’s Te Ahu center and the second, for $280,000 (excl-GST), is for construction of a new emergency spillway opposite the slow-moving Bell’s Hill slip site.
Councillor Finlayson said that the NRC has been methodically working through the highest priority repairs needed by the decades-old scheme and the new works program would bring much-needed improvements, as well as future-proofing it for many years to come: “Council has been monitoring and managing the Bell’s Hill slip for many years, concerned it could potentially slip into – and block – the nearby Awanui River.”
To that end, a new emergency spillway will be built on the recently-cleared 14,600 square meter former Firth concrete plant site purchased by NRC in June.