Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Work to start on new Awanui River spillway

Northern Advocate
14 Jan, 2020 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

River management engineer Barney Brotherhood surveys eroding stopbanks behind Juken New Zealand’s Kaitaia triboard mill, where the regional council is planning a new spillway. Photo / NRC

River management engineer Barney Brotherhood surveys eroding stopbanks behind Juken New Zealand’s Kaitaia triboard mill, where the regional council is planning a new spillway. Photo / NRC

An estimated 90,000 tonnes of soil will be removed in coming months to transform a paddock into a 400-metre-long flood scheme spillway behind Juken New Zealand's Kaitaia triboard mill.

Pending approval of resource consents and archaeological authority, the work is expected to be carried out between February and May as part of the second stage of the Northland Regional Council's multimillion-dollar upgrade of the Awanui flood scheme.

Forestry and wood processing company Juken is allowing its land to be used for the upgrade which will also give better flood protection to its Whangatane Dr triboard mill, one of the district's largest employers.

READ MORE:
• Multimillion-dollar upgrade of Northland's Awanui flood scheme celebrated
• Work begins on $15.5m project to protect Kaitaia from floods
• Good start to Awanui River flood works
• NRC's largest ever construction job - $15m flood protection for Kaitāia

The regional council's Te Hiku representative Colin ''Toss'' Kitchen said the existing spillway was literally a stone's throw from the mill.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The new spillway would be roughly 20m wide and 400m long and will be built 100m to the southeast on what is currently a paddock.

Roughly 90,000 tonnes of soil, or about 50,000cu m, would be removed.

"This work will account for more than a third of the total $1.02 million expected to be spent upgrading the scheme during the current construction season."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

While the new spillway would be about 2km downstream of Kaitaia itself, it would form an integral part of the upgraded scheme by helping to carry potentially damaging floodwaters away from the town more efficiently and quickly.

The existing spillway stopbanks behind Juken New Zealand's Kaitaia triboard mill. Photo / NRC
The existing spillway stopbanks behind Juken New Zealand's Kaitaia triboard mill. Photo / NRC

Kitchen said much of the aging scheme was built about a century ago so the regional council's focus until recently had been on maintenance and immediate repairs.

"However, this upgrade will help future-proof the scheme for a number of years – including predicted effects from climate change – as well as deliver a considerably higher level of protection for Kaitaia and surrounding areas."

All going well, the council expects the latest phase of construction to take 8-10 weeks.

Discover more

New Zealand

Avocado orchard attacked as water tensions escalate

14 Jan 03:15 AM

Legal battle ends in hefty payout for Opua boatyard owner

13 Jan 06:00 PM

NCEA: Student's reassuring message for school-leavers

13 Jan 06:00 PM

Total fire ban across Northland

13 Jan 05:00 PM

The new spillway will be given a few months to stabilise before the spillway is diverted through it next year. The current spillway behind the triboard mill will be retired as a wetland.

Improving existing stopbanks and building new ones will allow the Awanui River, including critical sections upstream of the triboard mill, to carry up to 15 per cent more floodwaters.

The scheme is designed to protect urban Kaitaia in a ''once in a century'' type flood and a 1:20 year event in surrounding rural areas. It is a key project in the council's Long Term Plan 2018-2028.

Seventy per cent of the work is funded by ratepayers Northland-wide via a regional flood infrastructure rate, with the balance funded locally through a targeted Awanui River Management Rate.

The JNL spillway will be the second new one built in two years as part of the upgrade. An emergency spillway opposite the slow-moving Bell's Hill slip site was built last summer on the site of the former Firth concrete works in Kaitaia.

The regional council has been monitoring and managing the Bell's Hill slip site for many years in case it slips into and blocks the Awanui River.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"While that spillway is expected to probably only carry floodwaters once or twice a year, crucially – should the Bell's Hill slip ever collapse unexpectedly and block the Awanui River's existing flow path – it's big enough to carry the river's entire flow," councillor Kitchen said.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

'Tipping point to extinction': Orca expert fears marina fast-track application

Northern Advocate

'I didn’t have time to think': Well-known local rescues woman from rising flood

Northern Advocate

'Frankly dangerous': Gang member's alleged reckless driving near police lands him in court


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

'Tipping point to extinction': Orca expert fears marina fast-track application
Northern Advocate

'Tipping point to extinction': Orca expert fears marina fast-track application

Dr Visser warns the marina could be the 'tipping point to extinction' for orca.

16 Jul 05:00 PM
'I didn’t have time to think': Well-known local rescues woman from rising flood
Northern Advocate

'I didn’t have time to think': Well-known local rescues woman from rising flood

16 Jul 06:00 AM
'Frankly dangerous': Gang member's alleged reckless driving near police lands him in court
Northern Advocate

'Frankly dangerous': Gang member's alleged reckless driving near police lands him in court

16 Jul 04:04 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP