A whakawātea was held yesterday morning to officially mark the completion of the Stead St stopbank upgrade, which began in November 2021.
The $15.5million project was developed by the Invercargill City Council (ICC) alongside Kānoa and Environment Southland (ES) to improve Invercargill’s climate resilience.
It consists of a roughly 1km sheet pile wall, 2km of earthenware embankment and about 2.5km of shared-use pathway, as well as landscaping, artwork and associated plantings.
Infrastructure group manager Erin Moogan said the "once-in-a-generation project" was a direct response to a significant amount of research into the effects of climate change.
The project came in well under budget, allowing council to do some additional work along Stead St around drainage to deal with several issues that had been hampering the community for some time, she said.
ES chairman Nicol Horrell said the development was one step in a series of improvements to improve the city’s climate resilience.
Former ICC engineering services manager Jeremy Rees moved into a new role before the project was completed, but said it was great to see the project completed.
"Especially the artwork with Waihōpai Rūnaka, it’s really been good to be able to get the expression of their narrative to be able to tell the story of mana whenua ... We don’t have big bits of art in Invercargill, but we do now. It’s been really good."
Mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook said the completed projected was stunning.
