MEDIA RELEASE

Wednesday 14 November, 2012

New dam paves way for development

Horizons Regional Councillors headed out to Palmerston North’s North East Industrial Zone on Wednesday 14 November to view a new dam designed to mitigate the effects of a 100 year flood.

The detention dam by El Prado Drive is sized to store up to 104,000 cubic metres of excess storm water during a major event, reducing the impact of flood waters down stream.

Horizons operations group manager Allan Cook says “large industrial developments involve a lot of concrete and impermeable surfaces that prevent storm water from soaking into the ground and lead to increased runoff.

“This new dam fulfills requirements to effectively manage excess water on-site, preventing it from flowing into a tributary of the Mangaone Stream and causing an issue for land and properties down stream.

“It’s vital to control storm water runoff in this area to ensure flood protection works down stream are not compromised,” he says.

Surveyor Kevin Judd of Kevin Connor and Associates says the multimillion dollar dam project has been eight years in the making, with construction underway for the past two. During this time, further industrial development in the area was put on hold to prevent adverse effects.

Mr Judd has been involved since the dam’s conception and says the key challenge was in developing a solution that would meet Council requirements for managing storm water while providing enough land area for development.

“It has been a lengthy process but we’re really pleased with the end result. It looks great and will allow development that has been put on hold to continue with the assurance it won’t increase the level of flooding downstream.

“The weather hasn’t always been on our side and working conditions have been a challenge but the contractors have done an exceptional job,” he says.

ENDS

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