Kauarapaoa Rd is now open to light vehicles after last week's heavy rain and flooding caused a massive drop-out. Photo / Supplied
Kauarapaoa Rd is now open to light vehicles after last week's heavy rain and flooding caused a massive drop-out. Photo / Supplied
The Whanganui District Council roading team has reopened the last of the roads closed as a result of last week's bad weather.
Kauarapaoa Rd, which suffered a big drop-out, was given the green light to open to light vehicles only just in time for Christmas.
It was the only road in the district still closed due to the heavy rains that hit the region early last week. Several streets were closed when more than 20mm of rain fell during one evening, causing flooding across the district.
The drop-out is about 14km from Aramoho Cemetery, near the end of Papaiti Rd where Kauarapaoa Rd starts.
The road was fully open to light vehicles from 4pm on Thursday.
"We have punched access through from the town end (south) while also looping around the Rangitatau East end (north) to meet at the big dropout," senior roading engineer Brent Holmes said.
"A minor temporary diversion and new culvert crossing are required to rejoin the loop and is being undertaken with urgency by our Roading Alliance team to restore this lifeline route to the rural community."
The drop-out is about 14km from Aramoho Cemetery, near the end of Papaiti Rd where Kauarapaoa Rd starts. Photo / Supplied
Restoring the road to usual conditions is expected to take many weeks.
Although the damage isn't so severe for Whanganui East's Turoa Rd, one of the streets closed due to flooding last week, residents are getting tired of the ongoing issues.
In the middle of a valley between Bastia Hill and surrounding hillsides, water easily builds up on the street.
Resident Sally Gray said a restraining dam was installed in the 1960s or 70s, but it could no longer handle heavy rain.
The flooding on Turoa Rd after last week's heavy rain. Photo / Supplied
"It was pretty bad. In 2015, the Matarawa Stream was backing up and it was coming from both ends," Gray said.
"It was just pouring through the properties. We are very lucky because when the subdivision was built, owners were told to build high because of the stream and it could flood.
"It just runs through the bottom of the properties. It was pouring through."
A stream used to run through the street, but it was pushed to the back end of the properties to accommodate the subdivision's development.
A restraining dam is in place at the end of Turoa Rd. The section of land it is on was previously owned by the council, but is now owned privately.
"It acts as a restraining dam, not a retaining dam, just to restrict the flow. We don't think it has had any maintenance because it is on private land."
Gray wasn't sure who was in charge of its maintenance.
"It's just a little dam. But it is quite important to us. It's private land now, but when the dam was built, it was council land. So we aren't really sure.
"We accept the fact we have a stream running down our backyard and it could flood, but we want to be confident someone is looking after the dam and it is being maintained."
Fellow resident Margaret Marshall, who has lived on Turoa Rd for the last 40 years, said the flooding seemed to be worse, with the current system not able to deal with heavy rain.
"It went right over the bridge. It went right back into the garage, it just missed it by an inch.
"This was all backed up. The water just has not been getting away. It usually comes up and flows pretty quickly and disappears, but it hasn't been.
Flood water went all the way up to the black fence of Margaret Marshall's property during last week's heavy rain. Photo / Logan Tutty
"There is something going on where the water just isn't going away. There has to be something blocking it."
