Construction on key projects in the Kaikōura District Council horizontal infrastructure rebuild programme is set to begin before Christmas.

“By Christmas, we hope to have construction underway on Hawthorne Road and Gillings Lane bridges and on the aeration lagoon and Fords reservoir. Shortly after, in early 2019, work on the Lyell Creek sewer should get underway too. It is really exciting to be on the edge of seeing physical progress for some of our district’s key projects. This is the largest capital programme that Council has ever had to deliver and preparation and planning has taken some time but now residents will start to see real progress” CEO Angela Oosthuizen said.

The first project to start construction will be the ‘Five Bridges’ package. The replacement of five of Kaikōura’s local bridges will be delivered as a package to help ensure value for money and high quality work. Hawthorne Road Bridge and Gillings Lane Bridge will be the first two to get underway with construction expected to start in December.

Construction should get underway by Christmas on the aeration lagoon project at the sewerage treatment plant. The lagoon, which collapsed in the earthquake, will be rebuilt within the existing treatment plant site, further away from the stream. “Detailed design for the Aeration Lagoon is currently underway and is expected to be completed by October 2018. The goal is to get the contract awarded before Christmas 2018 and work started soon after,” says Oosthuizen.

Work is also scheduled to start on replacing the Fords reservoir before the year’s end. “Council has secured $2.4million from the Crown to rebuild specific areas of our 3 waters network to a more resilient state than pre-quake. Some of this funding will be used for the Fords reservoir project. Repairing the two existing tanks would not have been cost effective, the betterment funding will be used to replace them with a new 1.5million litre steel tank reservoir,” says Oosthuizen.

Progress has also been made on rebuilding Kaikōura’s sewer infrastructure. Badly damaged by the earthquake, including damage to several wastewater pump station structures, rising mains and gravity sewers along Lyell Creek, the sewer requires complete replacement between Lyell Creek pump station to the Mill Road pump station. The detailed design should be complete by mid-October, a contract awarded by Christmas and construction underway early 2019.

Council’s current capital contribution to the rebuild is $2.3million, or less than 6% of the overall cost. “We have a lot of support from central government, both from NZTA for roading and structures, and MCDEM for our three waters. Over the last 15months the team has secured full and final insurance settlements, and successfully applied to MCDEM for $2.2million to cover the shortfall from insurance,” Oosthuizen says.

More information including videos and individual project timelines and updates can be found on Kaikōura District Council’s website at https://www.kaikoura.govt.nz/our-services/rebuild-programme/.

ENDS

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