Emergency work on the Wairau River was rushed just before the storm swept through Marlborough last week.
Because, you know, from last year.
Fortunately it held, but Tuesday’s rain had nothing on last year’s flood event in Julywhich damaged 460 kilometers away; that is Blenheim to Timaru.
It was the . become second largest local road repair project in New Zealandafter the Christchurch earthquake.
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Marlborough Roads manager Steve Murrin said the extent of damage from last year’s event was “unprecedented”.
So far, “160,000 hours” had been spent repairing the roads in Marlborough, Murrin said.
All roads made impassable by the storm were now open to at least controlled access, and “80 percent of the 1,600 faults have been repaired,” he said.
RICKY WILSON/Things
Damage along Queen Charlotte Dr pictured last July.
Rivers engineer Geoff Dick from the council on Thursday presented an update to councilors on the recovery from the flooding in the Wairau River, saying all emergency repairs, stop benches and damaged lock gates had been repaired.
“We are quite comfortable that we are on track with the repair schedule approved last Novemberand we’re working around the constraints we had with the quarries,” said Dick.
He said he had yet to calculate the total cost of the work — an estimated $11.2 million in November last year.
“My instinct is that we’re probably a bit above the estimates we’ve provided, and once that’s done, we’ll file our claim with insurers,” he said.
He said he had “speeded up” two lanes along the Wairau River ahead of Tuesday’s storm.
ALICE OVEREND/Things
The Wairau River, looking at the Wairau Bypass, pictured after last July’s rainfall.
“Typical what happens after a flood like we just had [last year], we get half a meander crew. What that means is it comes from the heavy rock lines we have, and it will find all the weak ones in between.
“That’s only just started, so we had to do some emergency work just before the storm we had on Tuesday.”
Dick has informed councilors of Tuesday’s heavy rain event.
He said the flood affected three problem areas: David St and Fyffe St in Blenheim and an area near SH63, in Renwick.
GOODS
Heavy rain on July 17, 2021 caused extensive damage in Marlborough.
“Tuesday was a classic easterly, southeasterly storm, so it was the lower plains,” he said.
“If you look at the rain gauge in the town hall, over a period of 12 hours it was about one event in 20 years.”
The total volume of rain measured in the center of Blenheim during those 12 hours was about 70 millimeters. In Ward it was about 110mm.
Dick said the weather modeling was fairly accurate, but total rainfall ended up on the “bottom” of what had been forecast.
Brya Ingram/Stuff
Heavy rains caused flooding in much of Marlborough on Tuesday.
And while the council received some calls about the Taylor River, there was “never a problem,” he said.
“So it was a significant storm, but not a huge one,” he said.
In David St, tree roots blocked the stormwater system.
“That’s part of that entire Cameron’s Creek watershed that’s going to be upgraded for stormwater and to allow for housing,” he said.
Anthony Phelps
This week a car was towed out of the water on Hammerich’s Rd.
Likewise, in Fyffe St, at the top of Redwood St near the Wither Hills, there had been some sort of clog in the stormwater pipes. The municipality will be looking for the cause with a camera in the coming days, says Dick.
“That piece of stormwater structure is very important because it falls under two houses,” he said.
“We really can’t afford to fail, but luckily all the damage seems to be in the reserve rather than the road.”
And in Renwick, Dick said they had “problems” with School Creek.
BRYA INGRAM/STUFF
Marlborough Roads manager Steve Murrin said the extent of damage from last year’s event was “unprecedented”.
“If you turn onto SH63, behind Renwick, all the land goes up towards the Omaka River, all northeast towards Renwick,” he said.
“So SH63 has to act as a barrier, where we drain the excess water that can’t go through School Creek into the Omaka River. There was a diversion in about 1990, about 30 years ago.
Tuesday’s storm outswept the upstream end of the bypass and entered the old School Creek Canal which now has homes [near]. So we ended up with, probably, three or four houses that ended up with water running through the floor.”