Installation of the culvert blocks. Photo / Waikato Regional Council
Installation of the culvert blocks. Photo / Waikato Regional Council
A new milestone has been reached in Waikato Regional Council’s (WRC) Piako River mouth right stopbank asset rationalisation project.
The Piako River flood scheme includes a range of flood protection assets to protect people and property from frequent flooding, and the project seeks to replace three old floodgates near theirend of life with one, while also creating a shorebird habitat and a pond for fish life (tuna/eels). The floodgates provide protection to 850 hectares of agricultural land and the communities within.
This area has significance due to the Ramsar site at the Firth of Thames (Ramsar is a wetland site designated to be of global importance under the international Ramsar Wetlands Convention), and the link to the Ramsar site at the Kopuatai Peat Dome.
The project aims to create new wetland habitat where stopbanks are set back, and ties in with the Piako River green corridor project which aims to reconnect the Kopuatai wetland to the Firth of Thames.
The site was once paddocks that had become inundated by the sea after a king tide burst through a private stopbank. It was being used by shorebirds for foraging and roosting on old farm equipment before being purchased by the council for this project.
The latest milestone is the installation of a culvert, 4m wide x 2.5m high x 18.6m long and weighing 14.7 tonnes, which will connect new drainage from the south to the new pond and floodgate structure, which has yet to be built.
The drains will move excess water from the land through the pond and into the Piako River.
This project was started in 2020 after getting approval of $1.92m in funding from Kanoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit. The project was expected to take three years, with the creation of 21 jobs.
