Mayor's Message - ​upgrading Nelson’s infrastructure

Council’s most important role is ensuring we maintain and upgrade basic infrastructure such as the roads, airport, port, drinking water, wastewater, stormwater and river flood protection for our city to prosper long term.

This work is expensive, disruptive and can be unpopular. We are planning to spend $826 million on capital works in the current 2024-34 Long Term Plan. Council projects such as Bridge to Better in the central city, the St Vincent Street culvert in Haven Road and the NZTA project stabilising Rocks Road are disruptive to traffic flows and businesses. It is particularly tough on small businesses that lose trade when streets and roads are being resealed and infrastructure renewed and upgraded.

The easy option for councils is to ignore the problem and defer the works. Council’s assets such as the ageing buried pipes in Bridge Street and badly deteriorating large culvert in St Vincent Street are out of sight and generate few complaints. The problem is that when these types of infrastructure fail the outcomes can be disastrous for a city.

Wellington’s neglect is a cautionary tale on how it can go terribly wrong. The underfunding of the capital’s infrastructure has left the city in a perilous state. It has water mains bursting every week. The collapse of its Moa Point wastewater treatment plant means raw sewage will be discharged into Lyall Bay for over a year.

Wellington ratepayers now face an eye-watering catchup bill of $25 billion. This equates to $5000 per household per year for the next 30 years.

We have more than $150 million in civil engineering projects being built across our city by our Council and its partners through 25/26 and 26/27. These projects include the $78 million being invested in Bridge to Better, $9 million on the Maitai River Flood Protection works, $14 million on NZTA’s State Highway 6 Rocks Road slope stabilisation project, $12 million on Nelson Airport’s terminal apron, drainage and walkways, $10 million on the St Vincent Street culvert and over $30 million in the new boat travel lifts and marine engineering facilities at Nelson’s Port and Marina. We’ve done well as a region in securing over half this investment from Government.

These projects are disruptive and costly, but they are what we need to do to build a strong future for our city and region.

Mayor
Nick Smith