Surf break debris dump ‘temporary’

Piles of debris stockpiled in a bay featuring a protected surf break will be removed after work to reopen the earthquake-shattered highway north of Kaikoura is completed.

Mangamaunu Bay residents and surfers are calling for the alliance responsible for re-building State Highway 1 and the Main North Line to remove them sooner.

But the North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery (NCTIR) alliance said the piles, about 500 metres long and up to 8 metres high in places, were necessary to re-open the road.

NCTIR has held three community meetings to address the concerns and said it would continue to consult with residents and surfers as work continued.

The piles, at the northern end of Mangamaunu Bay, were more than a kilometre from the Mangamaunu surf break – one of 17 breaks around the country listed as nationally significant.

The Surfbreak Protection Society sent an open letter in June to several government ministers calling for the removal of the stockpiles to ensure the protection of the surf break.

Nearby residents volunteered to store the debris on their properties, but NCTIR had continued to use the area as a dump site, it said.

NCTIR environmental manager Manea Sweeney said the material stored at the stockpiles would be sorted to use in the rebuild of the highway, or moved to permanent dump sites.

‘‘The material will continue to be temporarily stockpiled and sorted at Mangamaunu Bay until the end of the project when the material is removed and the area is landscaped appropriately.’’

Sweeney said the alliance had consulted with numerous experts to assess the environmental impact, including a coastal engineer who concluded there would be no impact on the surf break.