Waihopai and Awarua runaka and Invercargill City Council staff took part in a whakawatea to mark the beginning of the work to upgrade the Stead St stopbank which will mean traffic leaving Otatara is diverted for about six months.
The news has caused some discontentment among community members, but council’s engineering services manager Jeremy Rees said the upgrade was vital for the future of the region.
"The Stead St stopbank represents many things for our city. Most importantly, it represents the future.
"This work embodies council’s commitment to managing the impact of climate change."
She believed the whakawatea was part of the relationship "deepening" between iwi and council.
"Once upon a time we may not have been involved as we could have been in these particular projects.
"I think it’s healthy, it is part of us maturing as a community."
Council was investing $4.7million in the project and additional funding of $10.8million was set to come from Kanoa — the Regional Economic Development and Investment Unit, as part of a wider focus on the region’s flood protection and river management schemes, supporting several "shovel-ready" projects in Southland.
To mitigate the risk from construction and machinery, Stead St, the road between Invercargill and the suburb of Otatara, would temporarily become one lane, open only to westbound traffic travelling to Otatara, for the duration of the project.
Traffic travelling eastbound from Otatara to Invercargill would have to access the city via Bay Rd.
