Rotorua firm will build Northland storm dam

Houses are being demolished in a Maunu street to make way for the dam. Photo / APN

A Rotorua-based engineering company has won a contract to build a multimillion dollar stormwater dam in Northland.

MAP Projects will construct the Kotuku detention dam at Maunu, which will trap water from flooded streams and slowly release it over several days, preventing downstream flooding in central Whangarei.

Owner and director Mark Prater lives in Rotorua, with MAP working throughout the North Island.

The aim is to have the Northland dam finished next autumn.

Eight houses will be demolished to make way for the dam, which will cost about $8.6 million.

Northland Regional Council contractors will flatten the first five houses over the next three weeks.

Three will be reserved to accommodate workers and demolished after the dam is built.

About $5 million was spent buying the 20 properties, including the eight houses, needed to build the dam, according to the council.

The construction style of the houses meant they could not be relocated.

Another several hundred thousand dollars went on relocating power and other utilities.