The fallout from last week’s heavy rain in Mid Canterbury could land in the vicinity of $150,000.

Around 150mm of rain fell in the district over two days causing surface flooding issues at the end of last week.

On the local roads, Ashburton District Council infrastructure and open spaces general manager Neil McCann said the early estimate to repair the damage is $100,000-$150,000.

“The roading team and our maintenance contractor HEB photographed about 350 locations and there was extensive surface flooding.

“We will inspect the road fully once all the water has drained away to gauge the full condition, however, this was not a large-scale event for us.”

The money to cover the repairs will come out of the operational budgets, McCann said.

“We have a minor events budget for this type of work.”

As of Monday, there were still several surface flooding-related road closures in the district.

The three sunshine bridges, which are more like fords, on the Hinds River will have to be re-instated and a grader will tidy up Hakatere Potts Road for 2-3 days where there are quite a lot of potholes, McCann said

“The grader will also go around the network tidying up the potholes on the unsealed roads.”

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi had several pothole repair sites on the state highway network under temporary 30kph speed limits.

Aside from the roads, there were other rain-related issues for the council, including the re-emergence of a roof leak at Networks Centre stadium, Ashburton.

“We’re doing an assessment of the EA Networks Centre roof to look again for the source of the leaks there.

“Other council buildings coped with the prolonged rainfall, but like many other building owners around the district, we noted a few leaks across our community facilities and buildings.

“We’ll have to reinstate all the stockwater intakes that are on rivers and streams, including Pudding Hill and Methven Auxiliary, but no other services were impacted.”

Bridge investigation work

As part of the second Ashburton bridge project, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi will be doing testing over the next few months which will provide information on existing ground conditions.

The testing involves digging holes in the existing roads and paddocks, which will be refilled as testing is completed, and drilling holes in the river area. Testing will take place on South Street and Chalmers Avenue north of the Ashburton River/Hakatere and at several locations both on and off-road south of the Ashburton River/Hakatere.

By Jonathan Leask