Kawerau’s Hardie Ave Flood Works To Go Ahead

Tuesday, 24 December 2024, 8:28 pm
Article: Diane McCarthy - Local Democracy Reporter

December 24, 2024

Despite being initially rejected for a central Government subsidy for a $1 million drainage project in flood hit Hardie Avenue, Kawerau District Council has managed to negotiate with the New Zealand Transport Agency – Waka Kotahi to get the project supported.

The drainage works were one of many roading maintenance and renewal projects the council applied for a 75 percent subsidy to carry out over the next three years.

The transport agency has had to cut funding allocations this year and, along with other councils, Kawerau received less than it bid for.

The council put in bids for $3.855 million for the 2024-2027 triennium but was awarded $3,310,330, leaving it with a shortfall of over $500,000.

However, when the council’s bid for Hardie Avenue groundwater mitigation works were turned down, operations and services manager Riaan Nel went in to bat for the project and managed to get it funded.

The council had budgeted $250,000 in its annual plan for the project and applied to NZTA for the remaining $750,000 after residents in the neighbourhood surrounding Hilldale Reserve had experienced flooding over the past two years and earlier in 2017.

Projects NZTA did not fully fund include minor safety projects such as speed bumps, footpath replacements, streetlight photocell sensor upgrades, school zone speed management, all of which will be postponed until the next funding round.

The council decided to put part of the 25 percent funding of these projects that it had budgeted for into funding the $40,360 shortfall in NZTA funding of footpath maintenance.

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