A D7 bulldozer sit waiting on the northern bank of the Waiho River close to the Franz Josef heliport. Photo: Greymouth Star/Brendon McMahon
All work by the West Coast Regional Council on the first stage of the Waiho River protection scheme at Franz Josef is now on hold pending a technical review.
That review began on Wednesday after being instigated by new chief executive Darryl Lew.
A technical advisory group (TAG) of six river engineers and hydrology experts has arrived from around New Zealand and would be undertaking a field trip to Franz Josef on Wednesday.
This will be followed by a formal symposium on Thursday to formulate a technical plan which will eventually go to the government for future decisions across the entire district, including on the future of State Highway 6 through the area.
Lew said on Wednesday all of the experts had previously undertaken formal technical studies of the avulsing Waiho River.
The idea of bringing the group together was to get them to formulate and sign off formal advice on the problem which would go to the government eventually.
This is in light of the significant aggradation of the Waiho bed and the ongoing challenge it poses to the viability of both the Franz Josef Glacier township and the south bank Waiho Flat farming community.
Lew said the TAG report would go to the key partners of the Westland District Council, the West Coast Regional Council and Waka Kotahi before being provided on the basis of formal advice to the government.
Before that happened however council would be instigating a community meeting at Franz Josef incorporating the Waiho River special rating district to canvass their views.
"There will be no decisions made on anything down there until we talk to the community," Lew said on Wednesday.
The northern bank of the Waiho River showing the current Waiho River bailey bridge. The current rock protection bank is to be raised by up to two metres but the entire $24million Waiho Protection Scheme is now on hold. Photo: Local Democracy Reporting/ Greymouth Star - Brendon McMahon
But he confirmed that all of the project work on the $12.5m stage one project currently under contract for the council, "especially the Tatare bank", is on hold pending the TAG group findings.
At yesterday's Infrastructure Governance Committee council infrastructure resilience group project manager Scott Hoare said good progress was being made on the new link bank downstream of the Franz Josef heliport.
There was dialogue with the heliport and the Civil Aviation Authority around changing flight paths while the existing banks in the area were raised.
Hoare noted "some robust discussion" at the recent limited notification hearing involving the Scenic Group in Greymouth on 29 July.
It had not gone "as planned" and a lot of focus on consent conditions. In particular, the commissioner had "sided with Scenic" around the kinds of conditions to be imposed post-construction including ongoing monitoring.
"In light of that the commissioner has set us some tasks around setting those final conditions."
The timeline for a decision was not 100 percent certain, Hoare said.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.