{"id":291995,"date":"2026-02-19T17:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/291995\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:04:12","slug":"groyne-proposed-for-wairoa-river-mouth-cost-would-be-more-than-12-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/291995\/","title":{"rendered":"Groyne proposed for Wairoa River mouth, cost would be more than $12 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

No funding has been secured, but an application has been put forward to the Government for funding support.<\/p>\n

Wairoa has suffered from serious floods in recent years including the June 2024 floods<\/a>, which were exacerbated by the position of the river mouth, and Cyclone Gabrielle<\/a> in February 2023.<\/p>\n

That flood came from heavy rain further upstream of the town.<\/p>\n

Wairoa\u2019s mayor is supportive of the project and has called it a \u201cno brainer\u201d.<\/p>\n

Currently, the river bar is sometimes opened with machinery<\/a> at an ideal location to allow the river to flow directly out to sea. <\/p>\n

However, that solution is only temporary, as new openings tend to shift back to the natural river mouth over time.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn aerial image of the Wairoa River and bar. Photo \/ Paul Taylor<\/p>\n

Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) manages the river and river mouth and is looking at the proposal\u2019s viability.<\/p>\n

\u201cHBRC with the Crown manager are looking at the merits of the groyne to reduce risk for the river mouth,\u201d an HBRC spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently undertaking preliminary technical investigations and looking at the requirements of consenting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe groyne will be expensive and there is currently no funding earmarked for the construction of this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear at this stage how much money HBRC would need to contribute.<\/p>\n

After Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023, Wairoa was given $70 million of Government funding for flood protection works.<\/p>\n

That money is going toward a spillway project at North Clyde<\/a> to improve Wairoa\u2019s flood protection.<\/p>\n

The groyne is another project entirely.<\/p>\n

Crown manager Lawrence Yule, who was appointed by the Government<\/a> to speed up flood protection work in Wairoa, convened a meeting of experts about a year ago to consider solutions for the river mouth.<\/p>\n

One of the engineers, Gary Williams, suggested a groyne be explored, similar to one on the Clutha River in the South Island.<\/p>\n

An initial proposal was drawn up and underwent peer review, with positive feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a concept that the engineering fraternity largely believes has merit,\u201d Yule said.<\/p>\n

He said the estimate at present was between $12m and $20m.<\/p>\n

Work now needs to be done to better understand the site, including whether a groyne can be built near Pilot Hill.<\/p>\n

He said it was also a sensitive cultural area, and mana whenua would be engaged.<\/p>\n

His role as Crown manager has been extended by 12 months largely to work on a solution for the groyne.<\/p>\n

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said \u201cwe need to be more serious on this than ever\u201d and the groyne was a \u201cno brainer\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said whenever there was a heavy rain warning, the river was a source of stress for the people of Wairoa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they know the river mouth is open for a start [in an ideal location], that provides a big source of security that the river can flow out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said a groyne would not be a \u201c100% saviour\u201d, but it would be a huge protection.<\/p>\n

His understanding was the groyne could be made from an EcoReef system, which were interlocking hexagon structures.<\/p>\n

He said the project would need considerable support from the regional council which needed to \u201cstep up and show a bit of commitment to Wairoa and invest in this next stage of flood protection\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wairoa has an estimated population of about 5000 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No funding has been secured, but an application has been put forward to the Government for funding support.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17525,5195,1558,4187,3092,2082,71,3273,161733,1976,1132,130,59037,111,43,139,7977,69,29056,30308,6739,131,58371,15289,6730],"class_list":{"0":"post-291995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-17525","9":"tag-be","10":"tag-been","11":"tag-cost","12":"tag-floods","13":"tag-for","14":"tag-from","15":"tag-future","16":"tag-groyne","17":"tag-hawkes","18":"tag-million","19":"tag-more","20":"tag-mouth","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-northern","25":"tag-nz","26":"tag-proposed","27":"tag-protect","28":"tag-river","29":"tag-than","30":"tag-township","31":"tag-wairoa","32":"tag-would"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}