But it missed out and now with the Project Reclaim bill rising to $18.3m, Waitaki ratepayers are being asked if millions of dollars should be spent in the next 30 years on a fix for Beach Rd.
Beach Rd remains closed for the foreseeable future following the removal of about 19,000 tonnes of old rubbish, from August to November, leaving massive gulches.
Council staff recommended in November the road be closed permanently but elected representatives elected to take it to the public.
At the same time, elected representatives were told Project Reclaim had no budget to rebuild Beach Rd after the cleanup.
Detail like the council missing a slice of a $6m fund, awarded to four other South Island councils in early 2024, for vulnerable sites like Beach Rd emerged on Tuesday night when council assets manager Joshua Rendell and Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher fronted a livestream question and answer community engagement session.
Mr Kircher said the initial cost for Project Reclaim overall — including the removal of the old Hampden Dump — was around $15m.
That cost was now over $18m including the as yet unresolved government waste and ETS levies amounting to about $5m.
"Initially we weren’t aware that there was any funding available from the government [or] from the Ministry for the Environment," Mr Kircher said.
Manager in charge of Project Reclaim Steve Clark was not present for the livestream.
Mr Rendell admitted to lack "that level of detail" when asked what was actually found in the Beach Rd dump site.
"There was a lot of material that was contaminated," he said but he could not specify.
And on Tuesday night Mr Kircher and Mr Rendell appeared at times to fudge their way through.
On Wednesday morning the council released costings for Beach Rd under the 2025-34 Long Term Plan including a "preferred" option to abandon it.
They are:
1. Realign the road around the holes created by Project Reclaim and install rock armouring to protect the entire 2.8km closed stretch at an estimated cost of $12.65m ($720,000 to realign the road and nearly $12m over 30 years to install coastal rock protection).
2. A "preferred option" of closing most of Beach Rd near to Gardiners Rd and construct a shared walking/cycling path at a cost of $50,000 in 2025-26.
3. Close Beach Rd between the golf course and Awamoa Road; realign the Awamoa Rd intersection to make it a through route to the remaining southern 1km of Beach Rd (estimated cost: $353,000, coastal rock armouring for that an estimated $3.84 million over 30 years).
Matters of communication repeatedly came up on Tuesday.
Mr Kircher defended the council, saying it had initially met with the immediately impacted landowners in late winter. He suggested a further meeting was timely, "ideally in the next couple of weeks".
Mr Rendell said the council had done "quite a lot of engagement with the community".
"We didn’t anticipate leaving things as they are, he said.
The council had always intended assets vulnerable to coastal erosion to be "a discussion point" in the Long Term Plan.
"Certainly a surprise finding a lot of rubbish there we didn’t think was there has exacerbated the issue," Mr Rendell said.
And installation of locked gates in November had only been intended as "a temporary measure".
"With the road not being opened again immediately, we did some sums around traffic management.
"It quickly became apparent that some more permanent gates were cost-effective.
"It certainly wasn’t intended to say the road is going to be closed permanently . . . It wasn’t meant to send that message," Mr Rendell said.
Mr Kircher said at one point it was "a case of looking at best value for ratepayers".
"Beach Rd, it’s a wonderful drive along there — it’s important enough for us to ask the community, what is the cost of protection into the future," he said.
