Council Votes to Drill Underneath the Mataura River
We're pleased that a key decision has been reached on the way forward for the Mataura River Water Pipeline Project - your feedback has played a big part in this.
On 16 May, Councillors voted to focus on drilling the water pipes under the Mataura River rather than building a third bridge to carry the pipes over it. Their decision was in response to strong feedback from our partners, stakeholders and the community during our recent consultation.
We want to say a very big 'Thank You' to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts and views on the project. We were impressed with the level of feedback – we received 395 submissions, evidence that the people of Gore want to have a voice in decisions on significant infrastructure investments.
You can see the Consultation Summary report and read what people said here. In a nutshell, 251 submissions (63.3% of respondents) preferred the option of a pipeline under the river.
The remaining 144 submissions (36.5%) favour combining the water pipe with a walking and cycling bridge, and we're encouraged at this level of support for better connectivity in our District.
The project team will now start investigating drilling options. The first step will be to complete a geotechnical investigation design to understand any risks from 'under boring better'.
Further down the track, our team will
- review all relevant regional and district plans to help plan our consenting strategy,
- request expressions of interest from under bore drilling companies, and
- design the new pipeline alignment, together with several other important steps.
It's expected that the investigations will take several months. Once these are completed, the results and recommended next steps will be reported to the Council. We'll keep you in the loop at all key steps in the process.
We appreciate you taking the time to read this update, and thanks again for your insights during the consultation. We're here to listen to your suggestions and answer any questions you might have so that together we can build a stronger and more connected community in Gore.