West Coast Regional Council chief executive Darryl Lew said sacrificial rock work on the Hokitika seafront bore the brunt of a storm surge, but it performed as it was supposed to.
Some interim repair work at that spot was still being assessed, he said.
Assessments of the council’s special flood rating districts were under way this week as river levels receded.
Lew said the council had yet to fully scope the course of the Waiho River at Franz Josef in the storm’s aftermath, given the pattern in the past year of the river cutting a new path into the neighbouring Tatare Stream.
“The teams are out there today [Tuesday] and this week. Hopefully, by the end of the week, we’ll know what we’re up for.
“However, right around our flood schemes, we don’t have any evidence of significant damage ... I think the rating districts from Hokitika south can be very pleased at the way flood protection assets have stood.”
Lew said the Hokitika beach repair work was being considered in line with planned work for the rating district to extend the existing Hokitika seawall a few hundred metres to the south of a damaged rock buffer.
“We’re still making a final decision on exactly what work we’re going to do now there in view of the consenting for the seawall extension, which is pending.
“What we’re going to do immediately there [are] some minor works of a limited nature to secure public safety.”
The immediate work was to address undermining at the beachhead where sand had eroded from above the rock work placed to act as an erosion buffer.
This posed a danger to the public accessing the beach.
“At the very least, we have to secure that.
“At this stage, we’re going to limit any other work because we want to let the consent to go through its hearing.”
A hearing date was imminent, with the consent application for the seawall extension now backed up by a final peer-reviewed design, he said.
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