A "slow, messy sort of job" affecting houses bordering Wanganui's Matarawa Stream is almost finished, Horizons Regional Council operations manager Allan Cook says.
The stream gets backwash from the Whanganui River and also floods in its own right. Walls are being built on either side of it to protect nearby houses from floodwaters.
The work extends to three or four houses on each side of the stream as it nears the river. Contractors have been held up by weather and stream levels, but Mr Cook hopes the work will be finished in two weeks.
It's been challenging, because some of the houses are very close to the stream edge. Council staff have spent a lot of time talking to the owners about what type of wall will minimise the impact on them, and how to use walls that already exist.
The owners have been very co-operative, Mr Cook said.