Three Year Plan - Road to Recovery

In 2021, the community told us they wanted to prioritise investment in ageing water infrastructure. Since then, we’ve worked on essential upgrades and renewals across the district to deliver critical investment. A new regulator, Taumata Arowai, introduced new standards that we must meet. We’ve continued to prioritise the most critical water and wastewater projects in this Three Year Plan. Milestones over the last three years include:

• 5.9 km of wastewater pipe installed or replaced since 2021.
• 1,640 properties and 21 km of pipe investigated for wastewater leaks and defects since 2021.
• the removal of Otāne wastewater discharge from the Papanui Catchment in 2022.
• a new Dissolved Air Floatation (DAF) installed for improved Waipawa Wastewater Treatment Plant compliance in 2022.
• Takapau wastewater treatment site consented in 2022.
• rebuilding of the Waipawa/Otāne drinking water plant after it was flooded during Cyclone Gabrielle.
• the opening of a new water treatment plant at Kairakau in 2023.

Since 2021 we have been taking a planned, long-term approach to addressing the significant investment required in our stormwater networks. Stormwater networks are the urban drainage networks that service our townships and do not include rural roadside drainage. Through our recovery community conversations following Cyclone Gabrielle, we clearly heard the need to urgently boost investment in stormwater, rather than taking a longer-term incremental approach. This Three Year Plan proposes to nearly double our investment in stormwater. Milestones over the last three years include:

• replacing/relining stormwater pipelines in Francis Drake Street and Jellicoe Street to Tavistock Road in Waipukurau.
• developing a stormwater model to understand network improvements.
• completing the Nelson Street stormwater upgrade in Waipukurau.

Since Cyclone Gabrielle we’ve already completed:

• 2 km of pipe (5% of the stormwater network) flushed to assess condition and remove blockages.
• 4 km of stormwater bed excavated (25% of the network).
• 5 km of vegetation cleared (31% of the network).

Over the past three years, extreme weather and Cyclone Gabrielle have created more than $170 million worth of damage across Central Hawke's Bay's 1,265-kilometre roading network. While Central Government funding has helped, there is still $129 million of unfunded damage remaining. Despite the challenges, we’ve made some big gains on our road to recovery. Milestones over the last two years include:

• $20.1 million in funding for the Pōrangahau and Wimbledon Roads upgrade.
• 2,134 km of roads graded to improve driving surface and drainage.
• 7,748 m3 of metal applied to strengthen roads.
• 26,920 potholes repaired.
• 148.5 km of roads resurfaced or resealed.
• $2 million spent cleaning culverts and drains.
• 2,000 road signs installed or repaired.
• 735 m of culverts renewed or enlarged.
• 4 bridges repaired or strengthened.

While Cyclone Gabrielle caused major damage to our roads, prior to the cyclone we already had damage from 2022, which was the ‘wettest year on record’. We’re proposing increases to the land transport activity to address the major backlog of maintenance issues. We’ve got options to reduce or speed up that programme.

Water and wastewater services are a major driver of costs with $600 of the total rate increase for urban ratepayers in Year 1 relating to Three Waters. There are few options to reduce the rating impact of this activity. In the three budget options, we’ve proposed options to accelerate more investment in critical Three Waters repairs or make further operational reductions.

Prior to Cyclone Gabrielle, we’d already begun to increase investment across our stormwater networks, beginning to fund stormwater activities in some locations for the first time in 2021. We’re proposing a major step change in our investment in urban stormwater, offset by external funding in the first year.

Even in the Central Option we’ve made significant reductions across services and activities to arrive at a 20.0% budget option. This includes closing transfer stations, reducing library hours and delaying upgrades in our open spaces.