Thursday, November 23, 2017
REED and mud is removed from the drain by the digger operator which will help bring the water level down in the area. Photos Ross McCullough OB4041-5
Ross McCullough
WORK last Friday to clean out half a kilometre of drain along State Highway 2 in front of Waiotahi Drifts should help reduce water ponding in neighbouring paddocks.
Waiotahi Contractors Opotiki operations manager-director Spike Petersen said the routine maintenance was carried out for the New Zealand Transport Agency and Opotiki District Council.
The work to clean out the drain, aimed to reduce the water level and the ponding impact on neighbouring properties.
“We just had to clear that [drain] to drop the water level which was starting to intrude on the property owners’ paddocks.”
Mr Petersen said water just sitting in the paddocks was a “bit of an ongoing issue” with various property owners in the vicinity affected.
While Opotiki council had a responsibility to look after the drain in front of the sub-division, he said at the end of the day, the work was about trying to keep all the property owners happy.
The work, which took a day, required three trucks and a digger.
Stop-go traffic management was in place on the highway with a speed of 30kmh through the work area, while the digger and its operator extracted the material from the roadside drain loading it onto the waiting trucks.
Mr Petersen said most of the extracted material was reeds and mud that had built up in the drain.
He said because of the wet weather there had been throughout winter and spring, it hadn’t allowed them to put the material extracted from the drain in the usual dump station.
Instead, it was placed in a low-lying area on a neighbouring farmer’s paddock. Once the ground dried out, the material would be spread.