A multi-million dollar flood stopbank for Lower Hutt has been given the go ahead.
A car park next to the Hutt River inundated during flooding in May this year. Photo: Tim Glasgow
Nearly 80 riverside homes and businesses will be bought by the Greater Wellington Regional Council to make room for the barrier.
The regional council has accepted a sub-committee's recommendation and will go ahead with designing the bank to provide protection along part of the Hutt River against flooding associated with climate change.
The plan involves widening the river channel and building higher barriers at a cost of $143 million.
A panel of local and regional councillors voted in October to fast-track flood protection starting within five years instead of a staged approach which could have pushed completion out to 2045 or later.
Resource Management Act hearings will be held in 2017 and construction is expected to begin by 2018.
Hutt River flooding in May this year. Photo: Tim Glasgow
