HEB construction, the contractors building Ōpōtiki’s new harbour entrance, will shortly start opening a channel between the two new seawalls. Pakihikura Harbour and the area around the Waioeka river mouth will be closed to all boat traffic (except Coastguard) from Monday 24 July so that the works and ongoing dredging can be completed safely.

Project director, John Galbraith, said that the team has been working closely with the Bay of Plenty Harbourmaster and Coastguard to ensure everyone’s safety over the coming weeks.

“From Monday 24 July, boat access to open water will not be available for a couple of weeks as the team start the process of slowly opening a channel between the seawalls.

“It is not a dramatic ‘break-through’ moment when water comes rushing through the gap. Early next week (weather permitting), the team will carefully lower the eastern end of the existing strip of land down to the low tide mark and then watch and manage the process through a tide change. Slowly, some of the river flow will pass between the seawalls and the natural scour of the water will remove much of the of remaining sand. The rest of the strip of land will be progressively excavated over the following days. Additional dredging and excavating will add to this process, creating the new river mouth between the groynes.

“Because it is a busy and active worksite, we won’t have dignitaries or large crowds on site to celebrate, just a small but important blessing from Whakatōhea to mark the milestone. We do plan to collect some timelapse and drone footage to share so that we can mark the moment with the community,” Mr Galbraith said.

Mr Galbraith said that work will then continue to fully open the river flow between the seawalls and slowly close the existing river mouth using the huge stockpile of sand.

“There are a lot of factors that will determine when the channel between the seawalls will be able to open for everyone to use and we may not know that date very far in advance. The project in full won’t be completed until early 2024, but we expect to be able to enjoy the milestone of the first boats passing through the gap as soon as August. More details on marking this occasion coming soon,” Mr Galbraith said.

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