It was presented at the Southland District Council’s services and assets committee meeting yesterday and sparked discussion when it was revealed 258 requests for service had been made in October across the Waimea, Central and Foveaux Alliance roading contracts.
The majority of the service requests were linked to wet weather events, including the snow and flooding across parts of Southland in September, which had a $2million forecast spend for road repairs.
The figure was up 37% on October last year, when 189 requests for service were recorded.
Strategic manager transport Hartley Hare told councillors culverts were one of the structures affected most by recent wet weather events.
Group manager services and assets Matt Russell said the increase in surface flooding, due to rainfall and the ongoing impact of climate change, would continue to cause problems for more than 14,000 culverts across the district.
"This will be a common thread that we continue to see year on year."
The issue was the culverts were not anywhere near the end of their life expectancy.
However, the council would have to consider whether the pipes not being fit for purpose was reason enough to invest in replacing them, Mr Russell said.
Cr Ebel Kremer said culvert damage due to flooding was an issue which had come up in council meetings before and solutions needed to be put in place to prevent it from continuing.
Cr Karyn Owen said she wanted the council to be proactive in seeking alternative solutions, such as incentivising rainwater capture which could the be used on properties.
Cr Bruce Ford said over the past 20 years, Stewart Island/Rakiura had installed 500 water tanks on private properties, which made a "tremendous" difference to flood management.
Mr Russell said the impacts of climate change had been discussed in depth by the council, but no decisions had been made "on the back" of those to accelerate replacing the culverts. It would be up to the council to decide how it wanted to advance discussion on the issue further.
