50 | CONTRACTING Nelmac T T Richard Loader Restoring Nelson waterways a priority Tasman Street remediation work - Nelmac is working through a programme of restoring damage sites and has completed 39 to date. Talk to us today, the feature profile experts Phone: 03 983 5500 waterfordpress.co.nz PROFILE YOUR PROJECT... In August of 2022, Nelson’s devastating floods resulted in significant damage to the waterways throughout Nelson and Stoke. Damage varied from scoured banks and the deposition of gravel carried down by the raging floodwaters, to structures undermined, eroded or damaged by slash or other debris carried down by the stream, with critical assets including wastewater and stormwater pipes and roads at risk because of erosion damage. Spearheading the massive task of restoration and rehabilitation work of the waterways throughout the region is Nelmac’s Water Division. Nelmac is a Council Controlled Trading Organisation, wholly owned by the Nelson City Council, and operates the three divisions of Water, Kūmānu (Conservation), and Greenspaces. Divisional Leader for Water, Richard Lester, says that after Nelson City Council identified the damage sites, Nelmac helped triage and prioritise the sites, identifying the work that had to be done. “Depending on the scale, a design is put together by the Council’s consultants, and we liaise with them. We’re working through a programme of restoring damage sites and have completed 39 to date, with another 33 to complete this financial year, and another 171 in the next couple of financial years.” To leave the Water Division free to undertake normal ‘business as usual’ work, the Awa Enhancement Team was established specifically to attend to flood work and resourced from within the Water Division, as well as externally. There is also regular collaboration with freshwater and terrestrial ecologists from within Nelmac’s Kūmānu Division, who have also helped resource some of the physical work. “Whenever we’re doing this sort of work, we aim to restore the site to a better state than it was before the floods,” says Richard. “The biggest challenge for us is ensuring we do all our work within the environmental constraints. For example, working in the rivers for most of the area there are pre-existing consents in place that require no release of sediment, to protect the aquatic life, and that requires robust planning. “Where we can, we divert water around the worksite so that we can do the work within a dry area. Where we can’t divert the water, we have put on pumps and dams and over pump the water past the construction site and back downstream, working under advice and supervision from freshwater ecologists. We do a lot of work to capture and release the aquatic life to a safer area.” To date, much of the work has focused around the Matai River, near the Waahi Taakaro Golf Course, explains Richard. “That was one of our earlier high priority sites. We had to do large-scale gravel removal and rock armouring in the Matai, through the golf course and that required temporary over pumping of the whole Matai River. That would have been one of the largest river over pumping projects we or our pump suppliers had ever been involved with. There has also been a lot of repair work at the Brook Stream.” For over 25 years, Nelmac has enhanced the well-being of New Zealand communities by providing environmental asset management services in the core areas of greenspaces, conservation, commercial projects and three waters, along with landscape architecture and planning services. With around 370 employees, Nelmac has a diverse array of professional ecologists, horticulturalists, designers, project and operations managers, and on-the-ground implementation staff dedicated to maximising environmental outcomes. The team is spread across three divisions - Greenspaces, Water and Kūmānu (Conservation) - each department full of inter connected industry specialists using tested systems to deliver holistic, innovative and integrated solutions. “Our Head Office is based in Nelson, but we have departments across the Top of the South including Blenheim and Golden Bay, operating right across the South. But we also operate right across New Zealand, especially in our conservation work.” One Staff 1/68 Achilles Ave, Nelson P: 03 545 7063 P: 0800 178 233 (1 STAFF) www.onestaff.co.nz PROUD TO BE SUPPORTING Nelmac Ltd
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