Stop bank work on target

Work on Spring Creek’s stop bank is well underway with the engineering design completed, and preliminary ground works underway.

At a meeting at Spring Creek Hall last week, locals were briefed on progress by Council’s Rivers and Drainage Engineering Manager Andy White, Beca’s Technical Director of Civil Engineering Kate Purton and Taylors Contracting Manager Robbie Swarbrick.

Andy White told the meeting that the project was on track for completion in June 2027, however its complexity and cost had increased following detailed design work and the June 2025 flood event which caused further riverbed scour.

Additional funding was expected to be announced in coming weeks from central government, a strong supporter of the project through their ongoing co-investment in critical flood infrastructure, Mr White said.

“We’re on track - we always said we would start the main works in 2025,” he said.

Work revolved around the summer season, typically from November to April and starts next month with construction of the haul road, realignment of Peninsula Road and relocation of associated services.

River rock placement would start in January 2026 with as much work as possible done over summer, finishing in April when autumn rains began and river levels rose, Mr White said.

Work would begin again in October 2026 when the existing stop bank would start to be replaced, starting from the Spring Creek end, and work would be finished by June 2027.

“It’s just not feasible to do the work in one year,” Mr White said. “The scale of the project is significantly larger due in large part to the extent of cracking through the bank and the depth of river bed scour. Nearly 100,000 tonnes of rock and 160,000m3 of fill will be placed over the two summers season, all coming from Council’s upgraded Pukaka Quarry. This is the biggest project our team has delivered in 30 years.”

Kate Purton from Beca talked about the design scope of the work which involved raising the finished stop bank height one and a half metres higher in order to meet future climate scenarios.

Peninsula Road would be permanently moved off the top of the stop bank to further increase its resilience.

More information on the project will be available on Council’s website.