Greymouth floodwall repairs to avoid whitebaiting season
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Repairs will soon begin on a slumping section of the Greymouth Floodwall at Blaketown, ahead of a wider upgrade to raise and widen the wall.
West Coast Regional Council area engineer Paulette Birchfield said a slumped section of the wall needed to be fixed on the Blaketown Tiphead, just east of the Blaketown Rugby Club.
It was being timed to follow the end of the whitebaiting season.
Birchfield said the work, costing $60,000, would require a road closure on the Tiphead, anticipated for two days in early November. Henry Adams has been contracted to carry out the work.
The work was routine, although the narrowness of the Grey River at the repair point had a bearing.
"Any rock work does need maintenance over time … generally it's fairly stable."
The river channel generally moved within the bed over time and the main flow was currently hard up against the true left bank by Blaketown.
The resulting scouring effect impacted on the rock facing of the wall, with stone slumping down the wall face into the channel.
The solution was to top the rock up, from above.
Birchfield said the wall was constructed knowing regular maintenance would be needed, as for any river protection wall in the region.
About 400 tonne of rock would be transported from one of council's quarries, with each piece placed from the top using a claw on a digger.
A similar fix costing $75,000 to repair rock rip rap on the Punakaiki seawall was completed last month.
Meanwhile, the bigger project to widen and raise the Greymouth Floodwall across its entire footprint is moving towards the tender stage.
A report to council's Infrastructure Governance Committee on October 10 noted tender documentation had been issued to a pre-approved group of contractors at the end of September.
The existing resource consent for the floodwall was also undergoing a legal review.
A reminder this hunting season
As thousands of hunters are making their plans for autumn – the Roar – recreational firearms groups are urging hunters to always be 100% sure of their targets.
Te Tari Pureke - Firearms Safety Authority NZ, which chairs the Recreational Firearms Users Group, has begun a public information campaign reminding hunters everywhere of Rule #4 of the Firearms Safety Code: to identify their target beyond all doubt.
Director Communities and Corporate, Mike McIlraith, says there is an estimated 50,000-60,000 New Zealanders involved in big game animal hunting each year, and the Roar is the key event for many hunters each year.
“The Roar is a fantastic time of year for hunters to get out into the hills after a trophy animal but hunting safely and making sure everyone gets home in one piece, still must be the most important goal of every trip,” says Mike McIlraith.
“The consequences of not fully identifying your target beyond all doubt can be catastrophic. Our message to hunters is a really simple one: If you are not sure, then don’t shoot.”
Mike McIlraith says while hunting fatalities are thankfully rare, research has shown that misidentification of the target is the largest firearms related risk to New Zealand deer hunters, and 80% of the time this involves members of the same hunting group.
The Authority says hunters should not feel pressured to take a shot: “Instead, hunters should take the time to analyse their target, wait and see if it is a hind or stag, how old is the animal, how many points does its antlers have? Identifying your target means never firing at sound, shape, colour or movement alone.”
Mike McIlraith says good hunters will slow down, and run through some simple mental checks:
- Can I see the whole animal, or could this be another hunter?
- Where are my hunting companions – could this be them or someone else?
- How much of the animal can you see, if it is a hind or stag, how old is the animal, how - many points does its antlers have?
“Taking a little extra time to identify your target and check the firing zone is the key to safer hunting. No meat or no trophy is better than no mate,” he says.
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