Geotechnical assessments on two key Otago Peninsula roads could help make the slip-prone area more resilient in future severe weather events.
Dunedin City Council acting group manager, transport, Merrin McCrory said the council had commissioned geotechnical and hydrological assessments on sites on Highcliff and Portobello Rds.
The assessments would help the council plan and carry out work to improve the resilience of peninsula roads, Ms McCrory said.
The ''Peninsula Connection'' road safety improvements would also raise and widen the road, making it better able to cope with severe weather issues.
Her comments come after Otago Peninsula Community Board chairman Paul Pope suggested ways the slip and flood-prone area could better withstand severe weather events.
He agreed that geotechnical assessments were a good way forward, but also suggested more tree planting might improve the situation.
''We always should be trying to be proactive, because it's not only about infrastructure, but it's also about soil conservation and land conservation as well.''
However, the community needed to realise there were limitations to what could be done given the topography of the area.
''We are a very sharp razor-back ridge running from the town out to Taiaroa Head ... with steep sides either side, and, obviously, water is going to be an issue.''
He believed the peninsula got off more lightly than in some past events, partly because of the efficiency of council contractors.
Peninsula residents were also a ''very resilient bunch'' and had done a good job of looking after each other.
Harington Point resident Moana Wesley, whose house came close to being inundated, also believed more trees needed to be planted.
The community also had long been trying to get the council to find better drainage solutions, but had had no success.
The council's road-widening project had made flooding worse for some nearby residents. Rather than installing drains, they cambered the road so water would drain off, but when it flooded the water flowed straight into houses.
She believed the best thing the council could do was to listen to residents and use their years of local knowledge to help come up with solutions.
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Comments
The various Borough Councils prior to amalgamation into the single Dunedin city council used to have a policy of supporting plantings on steep slope for the purposes of soil conservation. This included subsidy for the purposes of planting as well as in some cases manpower.
However, much of this work was not recorded on title for the properties and as a result future landowners have undertaken harvesting and deforesting operations on some of these such as Church Road in Green Island.
There are other pieces of land on the peninsula that were once well planted. Perhaps with the active records for these events that recognise land damage from natural hazards being recorded on title, we could incentivise such remedial work.
Whilst we are at it though, can we please remove wilding pine and potentially large tree grows from the immediate vicinity of steep slopes? This also used to be a policy that the city was tasked by the community with supporting, but has fallen by the wayside in the last decade