Deborah Read by a flooded Te Horo Beach Rd. Photo / David Haxton
Deborah Read by a flooded Te Horo Beach Rd. Photo / David Haxton
A solution is needed to address a key part of Te Horo Beach Rd, which flooded, preventing many people from leaving or entering the beachside settlement, a resident says.
The intense heavy rain on Monday and Tuesday combined with an overflowing Mangaone Stream flooded parts of the road, including asection close to the settlement, just west of Pukenamu Rd, beside a school bus stop.
Aerial image showing a flooded Te Horo Beach Road. Photo / Tokerau Jim Images
"It's obvious to me that this road has a dip in it that is way below what's acceptable for the regular flooding it gets," Te Horo Beach resident Deborah Read said.
"This dip obviously needs addressing and they're [authorities] not doing that."
Read, who has lived in the area for about 10 years, couldn't get back to her house so had to spend Tuesday night at a friend's place.
By Wednesday morning when Kapiti News visited, only drivers of four-wheel-drive vehicles were brave enough to cross the flooded part of the road.
Drivers of standard vehicles didn't risk it, although some were lucky to have their vehicles taken across on the back of a flatbed truck courtesy of kind samaritan Rod Clifton.
Rod Clifton helps a motorist cross a flooded Te Horo Beach Road. Photo / Tokerau Jim Images
Te Horo Beach Rd was reopened on Thursday afternoon, reinstating access to the 350 houses that were cut off.
Read had a simple solution to mitigate future flooding across the road – raise it a bit.
"This road floods every couple of years, but I've never seen it closed like this."
There were other parts of the road that could be raised a bit to mitigate flooding too.
"All they have to do is raise the road and then the road becomes a dyke."
Ōtaki ward councillor James Cootes, who lives in Te Horo Beach, said the dip as well as further east, had always flooded and risked cutting off access.
"After the last storm event in 2015, I raised the issue with Kāpiti Coast District Council (KCDC) and Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) staff.
"After meeting on site and assessing the issues, GWRC did some minor work within the stream corridor and KCDC did some implements at the dip which helped reduce the risk of flooding.
A vehicle navigates a flooded Te Horo Beach Rd. Photo / David Haxton
"However, with an event the scale of what we have seen, in my opinion, only removing the dip in the road would have avoided the flooding.
"In 2015, staff had looked at raising the dip in the road where the flooding occurred, but given the cost to rectify was between $500,000 and $1m from memory, and the frequency of closure was low, it didn't get prioritised over worse-affected areas in Kāpiti.
"Work was also done at Te Horo Beach installing two new stormwater sumps and cleaning out the existing sumps, with the most recent service of them in June this year.
"Staff is also investigating the viability of adding some additional sumps in Rodney Ave.
"With the risk of events like these becoming a more regular occurrence from the impacts of climate change, I will be raising the issue again with council for consideration."
Flooding at Te Horo Beach. Photo / Tokerau Jim Images.
KCDC infrastructure services group manager Sean Mallon said, "As far as preventing the road flooding again we are of the view the best results could be achieved by investment in management of the Mangaone Stream.
"The Mangaone Stream is managed by Greater Wellington Regional Council.
"This could include by building flood protection bunds alongside the road or Stream, or widening the stream and looking at increased maintenance.
"Council looked at raising the road level around this area of Te Horo Beach Rd after flooding in 2015.
"Aside from the cost of raising the road sufficiently, which would be extensive, raising the road could cause other ongoing maintenance issues that council would need to fund."
GWRC's Kāpiti representative Penny Gaylor said she had talked to staff and was advised a long-reach digger would be clearing swan grass on the stream banks.
She had also met online "with the group manager to discuss increasing the maintenance regime currently in place".
Local farmer Kerry Walker, who has lived in the area for many years, said it had been difficult to get the council to address the flooding issue over the years.
Kerry Walker and dog Charlie. Photo / David Haxton
"But if locals get together and do something, then it will get done.
"There's quite a community at the beach and it's probably big enough to make some noise.
"It would be a relatively easy fix, but it's all money isn't it, and Kāpiti Coast District Council would have to go through a consenting process to get something done with Greater Wellington."
He felt there needed to be more maintenance of the Mangaone Stream too.
"But they [GWRC] won't touch the stream bed and that's the problem."
Mallon noted council had an ongoing district-wide stormwater maintenance programme to minimise flooding, which includes maintaining infrastructure at Te Horo Beach.
"Work was completed there in June this year to clear stormwater sumps and chambers of the build-up of sand and sediments to ensure they can drain freely.
"The extraordinary rainfall of earlier this week was overwhelming for many assets across Kāpiti.
"It could be something that could be bumped up the list, if there is such a list, with regards to roading projects in the area.
"We have been talking about the district's growth strategy and are looking at areas that can have growth.
"Te Horo and this general area are one of those areas so it would be prudent to say that we should be ensuring the roading infrastructure here is fit for purpose.
"I'm not saying that it's not at the moment, but from a future-proofing perspective, it might have to be something that needs to be considered with regards to climate change, weather events and the amount of water that will be coming down these streams on a regular basis."
