Northland Regional Council has welcomed the announcement of Crown funding towards a $2.5 million project to remove a weak point from the local Awanui flood scheme.
Regional Development Minister, Shane Jones, last week confirmed the Council’s application for $1.5 million Crown funding via the Regional Infrastructure Fund had been successful.
Council Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Gibbard said the remaining $1 million would be raised through existing rates.
The area targeted for the strengthening works in the flood scheme is located on the Lower Whangatane Spillway at Kumi Rd near Awanui township. Floodbanks at the location failed in July 2020, flooding several houses and causing stock losses.
The project – which the Council hopes will begin over summer – would take around two years to complete over two construction seasons and would see about two kilometres of stopbanks set back by as much as 250 metres in places, effectively creating more room in the river channel for floodwaters.
“Our modelling indicates that this will reduce the flood level there by about half a metre which may not seem like a lot but could be the difference between the floodwaters overtopping the stopbanks or not,” said Mr Gibbard.
He said “making room for the river” is seen as world-wide best practice in flood risk reduction and the Council was grateful for the latest funding which, as well as improving the scheme, substantially reduces the cost of the project for ratepayers.
