Road to Recovery: Plan endorsed and funding opportunities
Published on 09 August 2023
The Coromandel’s Recovery Plan
The plan to guide our district’s recovery from the successive extreme weather events of January and February 2023 was endorsed by Council at its meeting this week.
The primary goals of the Recovery Plan are to restore, repair, build back, enhance resilience, and take care of our communities and their wellbeing.
The Recovery Plan sets out our district’s needs as agreed between our Council, local agencies and central government ministries.
“This Recovery Plan sets the scene for the recovery process to date and establishes pathways for navigating towards future plans and projects, in partnership with our communities, iwi, regional and central government and other stakeholders,” says our Mayor Len Salt.
“Our Council’s Recovery Team, supported by our Chief Executive and Leadership Team, has emerged as a truly collaborative organisation that has brought together a wide range of central and local government agencies, community organisations and volunteers. We acknowledge and are grateful for their support.”
There are four interrelated work streams that we began on soon after Cyclone Gabrielle:
- Thriving businesses (sustainable)
- Fit for purpose infrastructure (resilient)
- Rural and communities support (connected)
- Our natural environment (enhanced)
The actions to achieve these work streams are set out in the Recovery Plan.
They are predominantly geared towards meeting the intermediate needs of all affected communities, such as clean-up, repairing the transport network, reopening tracks and accessways, repairing homes and properties, supporting the wider economy and rural sectors, and providing wellbeing support to those affected.
This Recovery Plan is a living document and will be adapted in response to the changing needs of our communities and future events.
Check out the plan on our website at tcdc.govt.nz/roadtorecovery.
Also at this week’s Council meeting, our Emergency and Crisis Manager presented a report on our response to and recovery from the January/February storms.
Recovery Milestones
Our Council has created an online roadmap of recovery milestones. We'll be making regular updates to keep you in the loop as our recovery effort evolves.
Coming up:
- 24 August – 1 September: Careers and Business Expo
- September: Destination Hauraki Coromandel to launch domestic summer tourism promotion campaign
Download our Recovery Milestones document.
SH25A update
Photo: the SH25A work site
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s team working on the collapsed portion of the Kōpū-Hikuai Rd (SH25A) have been stabilising the ground while their big machinery gets started on driving piles for the new bridge.
When stabilising the ground, they need it to be reasonably dry to manage the quantities of cement being mixed in and the curing time.
Things are drying out and the team has been injecting 75 tonnes of cement, five metres deep into approximately 300m3 (106 tonnes) of slip material at the base of the slip area to retain and stabilise it.
Another team has been mixing 6,000m3 (or 2119 tonnes) of slip material with over 1,000 tonnes of lime and cement on the slope to form a stable layer that will support the heavy machinery working there and eventually the new bridge.
A local Kōpū yard is being used to store machinery and materials, and if you’re local, you may have seen the first of the six seismic pile casings arrive.
Stay up to date with the SH25A project on Waka Kotahi's website.
Cathedral Cove update from DOC
The Department of Conservation has this information about Cathedral Cove:
- We know there is a lot of interest in Cathedral Cove, the iconic Coromandel location damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle in February.
- We’ve consistently asked the public to keep away from the cove, as there is a health and safety risk caused by ongoing erosion and rockfall. Our main track at the site has also been impassable, and washed or fallen away completely in parts.
- Our staff have received a final geotechnical report on Cathedral Cove from independent specialists.
- We are now assessing that report and determining how it will inform future decisions around management of Cathedral Cove and the wider coastal Hahei area we’re responsible for.
- Decisions about Cathedral Cove and bays and assets around Hahei require DOC to manage a number of complex overlapping issues – we’re working through those at the moment.
- We’re acutely aware of the importance of the area to the local community, tourism and visitor businesses, and mana whenua.
- We expect to be able to make an announcement during the week of 14 August, and want to be able to answer all questions by sharing as much information as possible.
Funding opportunities