{"id":630279,"date":"2026-10-14T10:40:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/630279\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T10:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:40:22","slug":"kaikoura-flood-repairs-progressing-but-who-will-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/630279\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaik\u014dura flood repairs progressing – but who will pay?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kaik\u014dura is facing a multi million dollar repair bill as work to fix damage caused by the 7 July flood continues.<\/p>\n

Kaik\u014dura District Council has drafted an application to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s (NZTA) emergency works fund to assist with roading infrastructure repairs.<\/p>\n

More than 450mm of rain is believed to have fallen on 7-8 July.<\/p>\n

While flood protections held firm to protect the town, stopbanks burst in other areas causing extensive damage to farmland.<\/p>\n

Millions of cubic metres of gravel was brought down in the flood, raising the river bed by five to seven metres in places and leaving the town vulnerable to a future rain event.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While the council is eligible for the usual co-funding rate of 51 percent, any increase in the Government share would be subject to approval from the NZTA board.<\/p>\n

Council chief executive Will Doughty said the council was exploring several options with NZTA, from a basic repair costing $8 million, a mid-range recovery at $12m or long-term resilience at $30m.<\/p>\n

”We’re still getting our head around the damage and costings,” he said.<\/p>\n

”Each option would help address flood damage, with varying levels of investment in future-proofing the network against extreme weather events.<\/p>\n

”We really need to land the funding with NZTA, but some of the work can’t wait. It has to be prioritised.”<\/p>\n

The recovery programme includes urgent repairs at multiple sites and has been grouped into 14 separate work packages across the district.<\/p>\n

The approach to Cribb Creek bridge on Kaik\u014dura Inland Road was washed away by flood waters.<\/p>\n

Doughty said he hoped a decision on its repair would be made soon, in a bid to get it open before Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Cribb Creek bridge on Kaik\u014dura Inland Road was severely damage in the 7 July flood<\/p>\n

Supplied \/ Deon Swiggs<\/p>\n

Other rural roads, including Puhi Puhi Road, remained ”fragile” following the weather event.<\/p>\n

Doughty and Mayor Craig Mackle have been ”actively advocating” with government ministers and Kaik\u014dura MP Stuart Smith for assistance.<\/p>\n

The council’s annual rates income is about $10m from just 3000 ratepayers, with staff highlighting the importance of transport connections for residents, businesses and tourists.<\/p>\n

An NZTA spokesperson said the agency had been in discussions with the council since the flood event.<\/p>\n

While a draft application for emergency works funding has been prepared, a finalised formal application has yet to be submitted.<\/p>\n

”Once that formal application is submitted, it will need to go through the necessary processes before being considered by NZTA’s board,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

NZTA has been managing flood recovery work of its own following the 7 July event, with repairs to State Highway 1 at Conway River and other parts of the state highway network.<\/p>\n

Environment Canterbury was due to update the Kaik\u014dura District Council on Wednesday on its repair work.<\/p>\n

The regional council is facing a total repair bill of up to $33m from the flood.<\/p>\n

* LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaik\u014dura is facing a multi million dollar repair bill as work to fix damage caused by the 7…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-630279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630279","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=630279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}