$566k tsunami refuge plan on reserve

Papamoa councillor Steve Morris said the tsunami refuge would not affect Gordon Spratt Reserve's sports grounds but could be worked so that it was a spectator embankment. Photo / George Novak

A 6m-high tsunami evacuation refuge is planned to be built on Papamoa's Gordon Spratt Reserve next year as part of measures to save lives when the big one hits.

With the Bay's coastline most at risk from a huge tsunami generated by an earthquake along the Kermadec Trench, the Tauranga City Council yesterday proposed spending $566,00 to build a mound measuring about 2000sq/m on the Parton Rd reserve.

The council has earmarked to spend a further $170,000 next year for a tsunami refuge on a little hill behind the Palm Beach subdivision, together with the balance of costs for signs telling people fleeing a tsunami where to go. The public will also be consulted on spending $1.1 million in 2017 and 2018 to build refuges in Wairakei East and West.

Yesterday's decisions on the council's 2015-25 Long Term Plan followed a confidential briefing last year.

Papamoa councillor Steve Morris said after the meeting that the tsunami refuge would not affect Gordon Spratt Reserve's sports grounds but could be worked so that it was a spectator embankment.

"It will give people comfort that they don't have to go all the way to the Papamoa Hills."

The size of the refuges were calculated on the basis that each person needed about one square metre. With the reserve sitting nearly 6m above sea level, he estimated that the mound would have go up another six metres to keep people safe.

The Gordon Spratt Reserve refuge was originally programme to be built in 2016-17 but Cr Morris said it was brought forward because of the the council's decision to recommend the proposed Papamoa Special Housing Area to the Government.

He said the next part of the process also involved putting up signs all the way down the rest of the coast pointing people to the safe zones.

Cr Morris said he was delighted to get the money into the Long Term Plan because it would reassure residents in the extremely unlikely event that something happened.

However, he has yet to win the fight to have old fashioned sirens installed along the coast to alert people to turn on their radios. Having an alert system but no where for people to go when they only had short notice of a tsunami's arrival was a bit like putting the cart before the horse.

Tsunami evacuation bridges will be built this year at the back of Papamoa West behind The Coast and Tuihana subdivisions. And the Mangatawa interchange was expected to open in March to give people access to Mangatawa Hill.

Land use controls for the future development of the Te Tumu block down to the Kaituna River would include decisions on whether high dunes should be retained as tsunami refuges, or bulldozed to lift the overall height of the subdivision.

Papamoa Tsunami Escape Measures
*Publication of maps showing directions people should go
*Identification of higher natural features to serve as refuges
*Construction of artificial refuges

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