Hutt City a step closer to avoiding catastrophic flood with RiverLink signing
Tuesday, 2 May 2023
If the rain that fell in Hawke’s Bay in February had fallen in the Tararuas, Hutt City Mayor Campbell Barry might have been overseeing a massive clean-up with a price tag in the billions.
That is because a section of the stop banks containing Te Awa Kairangi/Hutt River would not have been able to cope with such a deluge and the central city would have been inundated.
City leaders gathered on Tuesday to sign off RiverLink, which will protect the city from future catastrophic flooding.
As well as beefing up central city stop banks the $700 million project features an interchange at Melling, a relocated train station, and new vehicle and walking/cycling bridges across Te Awa Kairangi /Hutt River.
**READ MORE:
* Work on $700 million project to transform Lower Hutt to finally start this year
* Reimagining the Wellington region: Fishing and kayaking for inner city apartment dwellers
* Lower Hutt's RiverLink: The $700m project to fix a river and a city
* Lower Hutt's $700 million RiverLink project reaches first major milestone
* Bridge delay could affect Lower Hutt's riverbank project
**
In 2022 the city council received $98.9m from the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund to upgrade infrastructure, which it hopes will lead to more than 1000 new apartments and dwellings, as part of the project.
On Tuesday representatives from Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Hutt City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency signed an interim agreement with AECOM-Fletcher to build RiverLink.
Construction for RiverLink is expected to begin later this year and be completed in 2027. Transport Minister Michael Wood said the project offered wide-ranging benefits for the city and the region.
A new interchange and bridge had the potential to reduce deaths and serious accidents by 83%. RiverLink would also provide safe and convenient walking and cycling options, as well as provide better train options. Use of the train network would increase by 30%, he predicted.
The upgraded stop banks would protect the city from a 1-in-400-year flood that would cause a huge amount of damage to the local economy.
The council’s long term intention is to turn the city towards the river and make it a focal point. The seeds of the project go back as far as the late 1980s, when the city began identifying the need to upgrade stop banks, which had long been sub-standard.
Barry said a storm that hit the city in 2004 came within two hours of breaching the stop banks.
'RiverLink has been talked about for decades. We’re getting on with it, and we’re excited to have our Alliance partners on board so that our planning can ramp up and we can make real progress towards getting this crucial project underway.'
With a budget of $700m, it will be the biggest project undertaken in the region since Transmission Gully.
RiverLink programme director Rod James, welcomed the interim agreement, saying it was the “first step” in big changes for the city that would occur over the next five years.
“It’s a major milestone … RiverLink removes a major pinch point in the river corridor, significantly improves flood protection, and makes the State Highway 2 corridor much safer. It will help Lower Hutt become a true river city.”
The budget of $700m was expected to increase.
Over the next six months, RiverLink partners will finalise the design to deliver the best balance of cost and outcomes.
When the detailed design, cost and construction approach is finalised, a Project Alliance Agreement will be signed.
Demolition of more than 100 properties on the western side of the river is expected to begin soon.