Central Hawke’s Bay river stopbank repairs progressing

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is nearly finished the repair of Central Hawke’s Bay stopbank breaches on the Tukituki and Waipawa rivers, and as part of ongoing river management is removing gravel from rivers and streams across the district.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Group Manager - Asset Management, Chris Dolley says, “We are working closely with Central Hawke’s Bay District Council to repair stop bank breaches and scours in the district.   

Five teams and a total of 30 people are working at Stockade Road, Tapairu Road, Walker Road, Waipawa Town Scours and Stablefords.

Locally sourced material close to the breach and scour sites is being used, and this is then compacted and tested before being covered in a silt capping and topsoil, and then grass seeded, he says.

Cyclone Gabrielle brought unprecedented flooding which caused around 5.6 kms of breaches in the 248km stopbank network across Hawke’s Bay, and further parts of the network were damaged by erosion.

Once repairs of the stopbank breaches is complete, then the team will work on scours and erosion sites.

Meanwhile, the Regional Council is managing significant gravel extraction from rivers and streams across the Central Hawke’s Bay district.

“There are 62 gravel extraction sites across the Upper Tukituki and Waipawa rivers with extraction also happening on the Makaretu, Tukipo and Mangaonuku streams,” says Mr Dolley.

“This work will continue for the foreseeable future as part of our usual gravel extraction from the rivers in the district.”

“We have had questions from members of the Waipawa community who are concerned about the level of gravel near the Waipawa township. We have resurveyed the Waipawa River and this showed that the gravel is at the right height above sea level.”Further information:

• For the financial year to 12 June 2023 there were:
  • 27 allocated or consented extraction sites on Upper Tukituki River
  • 23 allocated or consented extraction sites on Waipawa River
  • 12 other sites on minor streams (Makaretu, Tukipo, Mangaonuku)
  • Upper Tukituki Scheme Gravel Extraction IRG Project with 176,895 cubic metres declared gravel volume as part of a total of 433,884 cubic metres of gravel removed to date from the Waipawa and Tukituki Rivers since 1 Jul 2022 (so far this financial year)
  • Currently, extracting is occurring at 19 sites
  • Consents were issued for 859,900 cubic metres of gravel to be removed between 1 Jul 2022 and 30 June 2023

13 June 2023

Back to News Archive