A new Ahuriri Estuary seawall is 'working as it is meant to'. It's also leaking

Not quite the World Mountainbike Bog Snorkelling Champs, but water is water, still there at high tide on the Ahuriri Lagoon Cycleway under the highway, despite the new seawall. Photo / Paul Taylor

The Hawke's Bay Regional Council is investigating more leaks just a week after steps were taken to stop them.

The leaks are on a cycleway beneath the Hawke's Bay Expressway with a 47m-long seawall installed to protect the track and cyclists from higher tides in the Ahuriri Estuary.

The cycleway, under the span of an expressway bridge, was opened late last week but was soon attracting the disdain of Anzac Day weekend leisure-riders starting to wonder just what it was that the council had been splashing out on.

Jeremy Ballantyne, of nearby Westshore, told Hawke's Bay Today he and his wife decided to try out the new underpass on Saturday morning.

They rounded a corner to line-up the new experience, only to find their path way all-but blocked by two workers and a truck, and a few puddles.

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"After several months of laborious 'improvements', we find this section of the track no better than it was before, and we wonder whether all the vast cost and disruption were necessary," he said.

Napier MP Stuart Nash cuts the ribbon on the new underpass last week. Photo / Supplied

It has been the same at every high tide since.

Regional council cycle network co-ordinator Vicki Butterworth said: "The contractors and engineers are finding the source of the water inundation, and are currently working to find a solution to prevent further leaking."

"The seawall is working as it is meant to," she said.

"But the underpass has had some issues with flooding."

She said the wall was in place to stop tidal flooding of the underpass so that it can be used by walkers and cyclists at all times, to stop people using the expressway as a crossing, and create a safe underpass.

When opening the underpass last week, council staff said flooding of the Ahuriri Lagoon cycle trail occurred at four underpasses due to the low-lying nature of the trail as it passes under the expressway and the old Embankment Bridge, and that trails were left with slippery and dangerous silt and debris afterwards.

Some avoided the problem by taking longer routes, others by dodging the traffic on the road, and as crossing of the expressway was not considered a safe long-term option work to address the issue began in 2017.

Improvements were made at three of the sites, including the seawall beside the southern underpass, part of a spend of $330,000 from government agency, council and charitable funds support.