Greymouth floodwall repairs to avoid whitebaiting season
By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:
Repairs will soon begin on a slumping section of the Greymouth Floodwall at Blaketown, ahead of a wider upgrade to raise and widen the wall.
West Coast Regional Council area engineer Paulette Birchfield said a slumped section of the wall needed to be fixed on the Blaketown Tiphead, just east of the Blaketown Rugby Club.
It was being timed to follow the end of the whitebaiting season.
Birchfield said the work, costing $60,000, would require a road closure on the Tiphead, anticipated for two days in early November. Henry Adams has been contracted to carry out the work.
The work was routine, although the narrowness of the Grey River at the repair point had a bearing.
"Any rock work does need maintenance over time … generally it's fairly stable."
The river channel generally moved within the bed over time and the main flow was currently hard up against the true left bank by Blaketown.
The resulting scouring effect impacted on the rock facing of the wall, with stone slumping down the wall face into the channel.
The solution was to top the rock up, from above.
Birchfield said the wall was constructed knowing regular maintenance would be needed, as for any river protection wall in the region.
About 400 tonne of rock would be transported from one of council's quarries, with each piece placed from the top using a claw on a digger.
A similar fix costing $75,000 to repair rock rip rap on the Punakaiki seawall was completed last month.
Meanwhile, the bigger project to widen and raise the Greymouth Floodwall across its entire footprint is moving towards the tender stage.
A report to council's Infrastructure Governance Committee on October 10 noted tender documentation had been issued to a pre-approved group of contractors at the end of September.
The existing resource consent for the floodwall was also undergoing a legal review.
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️