Storm costs $25 million

Posted by on 15 December 2004 | 0 Comments


REPAIR work resulting from the devastating storm events in the Manawatu District earlier this year are still being carried out. Contractors are now on site at two of the bridges that were badly damaged - the Terrace Road Bridge (pictured), north-east of Kimbolton, and the Valley Road Bridge, between Colyton and Pohangina.
THE total storm damage bill for the Manawatu District during the 2004 calendar year has now been estimated at nearly $25 million.

Manawatu District Council Assets Group Manager, Richard Kirby, said the cost of the February storm was $20.6 million, while a further $4.3 million worth of damage resulted from other weather-related events through the winter.

“We are fairly confident that the $25 million is the top line figure,” said Mr Kirby, “though things can change when repairs are started and some sites turn out to be a lot bigger than estimated.”

Mr Kirby said the council’s total roading budget for the year – which covered all maintenance, construction and reseal work - was normally between $9 and $10 million.

“But the scale of what’s happened is clearer when the damage to roads and bridges in the one year is more than the annual rate take for the district ($17 million),” he said.

Three days after the February storm, Mr Kirby estimated the damage at $20 million, splitting the cost evenly between the roads and bridges.

“It was a gut feeling I had - there was nothing scientific about it. But I did get a tell-tale sign, however, when told that the damage was greater than for Cyclone Bola.”

Land Transport New Zealand (formerly Transfund) will fund 90 percent of the cost and the Government has promised to pay half the council’s share of $2 million for the February event.

Mr Kirby said a $1.4 million bill from the other storm costs has forced an alteration to estimates that will go before council in February.

“We had originally hoped to have all the work done by June 30, but we physically cannot do that, so there’s going to be about $4 million worth of work carried forward into next year’s programme – providing it’s a dry winter next year.”

In the meantime, work has started on repiling and levelling the Terrace Road Bridge over the Oroua River, north-east of Kimbolton, and replacing the Valley Road Bridge between Colyton and Pohangina. Valley Road is expected to be completed in mid-January and Terrace Road in late February.

Mr Kirby said drilling was also likely to start on the Beaconsfield Valley Road replacement bridge next month and design details were now being finalised for the new three-span Saddle Road Bridge near Ashhurst.

He said repairs were also continuing on the 284 under-slips that had caused significant disruption to the district’s roading network.

Source: Manawatu District Council.

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