Beach Rd would be permanently closed and kept as a shared walking and cycling path under a recommended approach to coastal erosion. Waitaki District Council is consulting the community on its draft coastal resilience strategy to tackle the threats of erosion along its 70km of coastline. The 50-year strategy is expected to be adopted later this year. Twelve high-risk coastal sites were identified in a 2024 report by specialist engineers Beca, with the draft strategy identifying a “desired approach for each”. Six of these sites have been recommended by council officials for managed retreat. The 2.8km northern stretch of Beach Rd would be “formally closed”. Gardiners Rd would be used instead. The shared walking and cycling path will be kept at the site “for as long as it’s safe to do so”. The 2.5km southern stretch of Beach Rd will be closed “when it becomes unsafe” and the council will have to decide on an alternative route from Oamaru to Kakanui, potentially Thousand Acre Rd. Elsewhere, rebuilding the Oamaru wastewater treatment plant inland was “already part of its planned rebuild” and this was not a “new or uncertain” project. The embankment was expected to keep eroding slowly near the treatment plant, with monitoring planned with drones and low-tide inspections. Waianakarua Rd will be closed “when unsafe” and a new State Highway 1 diversion route will need to be negotiated with NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi. A 100m section of Shag Point Rd would be moved slightly inland to “buy more time”. New burials will stop at Hampden Cemetery following the adoption of the strategy, which recommends re-interring remains from the site. Doing so “gradually” and giving families “plenty of notice to move loved ones if they wish” was “far more respectful and humane” than a “rushed” emergency response to storm damage. The aim of the strategy was to make proactive rather than reactive decisions when problems happened, a council release stated. Drop-in sessions will be held as part of the consultation, followed by hearings, before the strategy is adopted. The strategy will be reviewed every three years. The consultation runs until September 11.
