Business owners in Wakatu Industrial Estate remember like yesterday when the area flooded a decade ago.
“It had such a huge impact, not just on us but our customers as well. It was horrific,” says one business owner. “I still think about it every time it rains heavily or there’s a weather warning.”
But now they, and others in the surrounding areas, will be able to breathe a sigh of relief, with the completion of a $40 million, 2km-long upgrade of Saxton Creek.
The upgrade, which Nelson City Council group manager infrastructure, Alec Louverdis, says is one of the most complex and challenging projects council has been involved in, spans from Champion Rd through to State Highway 6.
Split into four stages, construction began in February 2016 and has required 112,000 hours of labour from contractors and council staff. The creek will now be able to handle a 1 in 100-year flood event, up from a 1 in 5-year flood event.
While stream upgrades usually start downstream and progressively work upstream, the work was reversed to cater for subdivisions at the upstream end and to dovetail with work Tasman District Council needed to do along Champion Rd.
The early stages were especially challenging as council had to work with more than 40 individual residential landowners whose properties bordered the creek.
“Challenges presented themselves before diggers were even on site and continued throughout,” Alec says.
“The creek travelled through residential areas with up-and-coming subdivisions, through reserves, across main roads, through industrial estates, compounded by the effects of some horrendous weather events, and a global pandemic thrown into the mix.
“Sometimes, we would be on the verge of concluding negotiations with a homeowner, and then we’d be required to start again from scratch.”
In the final stage, they literally had to move a building to continue work, as well as managing challenges with fluctuating tides.
Stage four saw a twin box culvert installed under Main Rd Stoke. The culvert is made of 68 individual pieces, each weighing 23 tonnes, that had to be first craned, and then slid into place, connecting like Lego.
The open culvert saw another 129 L-shaped pieces of concrete manoeuvred into place.
The rock armouring along the creek in stages 1 – 3 used approximately 4,500 tonnes of rock and 3,000 tonnes of concrete for the pre-cast sections in the culvert.
Nelson MP Rachel Boyack says she is thrilled that the Saxton Creek Flood Protection upgrade is finally complete.
“This project was needed because the small, existing culvert was insufficient to cope with stormwater and flooding events, causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage when it flooded.”
“The Labour-led Government invested $7.5 million dollars to bring the project forward and provide a long-term fix for flooding on Saxton Rd.
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith says the investment is well justified given the strategic importance of protecting the road link between Nelson and Richmond and the scale of commercial, residential and recreational development in the area.
“I know firsthand of the devastation to businesses and homes from previous flooding in this area and heard the pleas for improved infrastructure. It has required a huge team effort of engineers, contractors, council staff and adjacent property owners to get this extensive project completed.”
