RIVER CONTROL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 59, 21 February 1931, Page 5

RIVER CONTROL

ENGINEER’S REPORT. NO CAUSE FOR ALARM. RESTORATION OF PROTECTIVE WORKS. Very considerable alarm has been caused to the settlers of the Clive district by the publishing in Napier of the statements that a dragline excavator was being used to open the overflow at the Waitangi for the Tutaekuri river to reach the sea instead of flowing along the western boundary of Napier. Settlers tcai that if this diversion took place witn out proper control of the flood waters their properties would be greatly endangered. In reply to this statement, Mr. F. C. Hay, engineer in control of the restoration of the river protection works, makes the following reply: ‘ ‘ The true facts are that the Rivers Board is restoring to the district the same measure of security from flooding as existed before the earthquake, by carrying out the following works: (a) Rebuilding the damaged stopbanks to the same grades as existed before the earthquake. (b) Making a diversion at the mouth of the Tutaekuri so as to shorten the course from the Taradale road to the Westshore bridge, and thus increase the fall in the river, and enable the channel below Meoance to carry more water. (c) Widening the upper portion of the present Waitangi overflow to enable it to act as a more efficient spillway. “It is the suggestion that this latter work is for the purpose of diverting the Tutaekuri at the Washout that has caused alarm, and 1 have to state this no such diversion is intended by the Rivers Board“The bottom of the overflow channel is not being lowered and the board is not in the slightest degree departing from its declared policy as set out in the Hawke’s Bay Rivers Amendment Act, 1930."