Stalled Coast flood projects start

The Team Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

Some protection projects planned by the West Coast Regional Council have stalled after key staff left at a crucial stage in their development.

However, work on the ground for projects at Franz Josef, Hokitika and Greymouth and the Buller River are pending or in the development stage, the council's new infrastructure programme manager Scott Hoare said.

Hoare, a Christchurch-based senior project manager for Inovo, said he had been busy over the past month familiarising himself with the various projects.

"It's been a good few weeks just trying to get our heads around where the projects are."

The project to raise the height of the existing Greymouth floodwall on both the Greymouth and Cobden sides of the Grey River would now be split into a five-stage project, he said.

While there were existing consents for the improvements to the wall, the design was being reviewed to ensure it met the existing consents before any work would begin.

Hoere's arrival at the regional council comes after it was warned in May that it risked losing tens of millions of previously granted 'shovel ready' money for projects unless it could show some progress.

It came shortly after the council lost half of its engineering team, including the longstanding operations manager who had been overseeing the projects.

The council has since appointed a governance committee to oversee the projects, while Inovo has been charged with doing the practical project management.

"The council have lost resources here which is why we were asked to be involved. It's up to us to drive it to get an outcome," Hoare said.

Chief executive Heather Mabin recently told the council this included "renegotiating" the contract with MBD, the stage one contractor for the Waiho (Waiau) River.

MBD began in June with some preliminary rockwork on the southern approach to the Waiho Bridge.

Hoare said some terms and benefits of the Franz Josef contract, let under the watch of previous council staff, had needed to be reviewed but that simply amounted to minor "tidying up".

Meanwhile, the council was awaiting consent sign-off to get the bulk of the stage one Waiho floodbank extensions and raising project under way.

That consent should be signed off in about a fortnight.

"The reason we are in delay is we are working through the affected party process. All of the documentation is now with all of the parties," Hoare said.

"We don't think the process will take too long. With the regional council staff that had left, that process had stalled. Things are looking positive in terms of getting that consent."

At Hokitika, a known coastal hazard area, the council was working on two projects -- an extension of the existing seawall from Hampden St north, and a new flood protection work on the north bank of the Hokitika River to protect the town centre, in particular.

Hoare said the seawall extension consent was in the process and then the council would go through "a further stakeholder process," towards the end of next month.

The council hoped to start building this year, with tendering expected in the next couple of months.

The river protection wall was subject to further design before a consent process.

"It will take a little bit to get going," Hoare said.

In the meantime, the regional council is also overseeing the emergency maintenance works upstream of Westport at Organs Island, and expects to tender the work to fix the scoured O'Conor Home stopbank by next month.