Midday Report Essentials for Thursday 29 May 2025
transport politics 27 minutes ago
In today's episode, the government is proposing the biggest suite of changes in New Zealand's history to councils' oversight of housing, infrastructure, freshwater and agriculture, comments the immigration minister made likening unsolicited emails from Indians to spam has prompted criticism from the Indian community, Environment Canterbury is proposing a new commuter train from Rangiora to Rolleston, which it says the region's booming population needs and Kiwi band DARTZ are up for multiple awards at Thursday night's Aotearoa Music Awards.
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RNZ News
40 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Mt Messenger contractors making strides underground and overhead
Contractors have offered a sneak-peak at two of the main features of Te Ara o Te Ata - the Mt Messenger Bypass on State Highway 3 in Taranaki. A huge road-heading machine is excavating a 235m-long tunnel under the highest point of the maunga and construction of a 125m-long bridge toward the southern end of the project is underway. The six-kilometre $360 million bypass aims to deliver a safer more resilient route north out of Taranaki, avoiding an existing steep and windy stretch of highway which includes a narrow tunnel. NZTA project manager Caleb Perry. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Waka Kotahi project manager Caleb Perry said the tunnel, which was 65m below the summit, was a key component of the project. "The tunnel is 235m-long or will be once we've broken through and it's excavated in two headings. So, what we're standing in now is the top heading and the final road level will be about 3m below our feet here. "So, we break through with this top heading out the other side probably in about October/November time this year. Then we bring all the team back to the start, drop down about 3m and carry on and remove what we call the bench." Perry said two-lane bridge would be 13m wide by 9m high, giving an over-dimensional traffic envelope of 10m wide and 6m high when an emergency exit passage was installed one side and the lighting and fire safety equipment installed the roof. Inside the tunnel. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Tunnel supervisor Steve Wiley. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin A Tūrangi local, tunnel supervisor Steve Wiley learned his trade in Australia. "A typical day underground is pretty much excavation, shotcrete, curing time and excavating again." He loved life underground. "It's just a challenge. You have challenging days, good days. And it's the people, you know, you run into some really good characters working underground." Roadheader operator Carlos Cooper. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Carlos Cooper pilots the 110-tonne road-header given the name 'Hinetūparimaunga' - the atua of mountains and cliffs - by project partners Ngāti Tama. "She's one of the nicest machines you can drive in underground tunnelling. She's pretty good and particularly with this ground it's pretty soft, so she's easy cutting on this particular project." The 110 tonne roadheader machine in the Mt Messenger tunnel. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin He also earned his stripes across the ditch. "In Australia is where I started. I had a few mates who got into the underground game and I haven't looked back since." The Whanganui local outlined his day. "Arrive for a briefing at about 6.30am and come up here about 7am. Get into cutting mode and then it will take approximately two, two and a half hours to cut 1.2m and then we'll much the face out and shot crete will come in and do their bit and we'll bolt after that and shotcrete again." Cooper was looking forward to emerging at the other end. "It's quite a relief one of those special days you can look back on and tell your grandkids yeah you were on that project and it was one to remember. He hoped to take a spin on the new highway once it was finished. "Absolutely, yeah, hopefully I'll be one of the first." Bridge building boss Nick Myers-Kay. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Senior project engineer Nick Myers-Kay was in charge of constructing the project's longest bridge - which actually involved building two bridges. "Currently we're standing on the 110m of temporary staging that needs to be constructed ahead of building the permanent bridge which is going to be located out to the right of us here. "In the background here that's the first lot of permanent earthworks that the bridge is started on. That's pretty much where the abutment is going to start. The bridge had raking piers. That keeps the pier foundations out of the wetland." The view from a service road down to the tunnel head. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin He said the temporary bridge - on which a 28 tonne crane was operating - helped minimised damage to the wetland below. "The immediate challenge is the environment. I'm new to this area I've never worked in this region before, so I'm quite amazed at the ruggedness and steepness of the terrain around us. "It's obviously very beautiful country here too the bush is just spectacular, so that is obviously a major challenge for us to navigate our way around that." It was a point project manager Caleb Perry reinforced. "This is a really important part of the natural environment here at the headwaters of the Mimi Stream and you can see off to the side the kahikatea swamp forest which is one of the last inland wetlands that we are working as hard as we can to protect." A digger operating in the tunnel. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin That went as far as bending trees out of the way. "You can see around me there are few trees with tie-downs, ropes around them. We basically put a team of ecologists in a basket hang them from a crane and the try and bend some of those trees out of the way, so the temporary bridge can go through. "After we've built the main structure this temporary bridge won't be needed anymore and the team will come back and let the trees bounce back into their natural position." A 28 tonne crane preparing to place a pile from the staging bridge at the construction site of the 125m steel girder bridge. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin The permanent bridge was due to be completed by September 2026. New Zealand Transport Agency was still embroiled in a Public Works Act wrangle for land required for the project at its northern end. If that was successful, it would take about four years to complete the bypass. A surveyor working at the tunnel face. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Regional council says low risk to life when Middlemarch floods, residents say it's still stressful
Sewage in the Tap and Dough Bistro in Middlemarch, central Otago, in 2018. Photo: SUPPLIED The Otago Regional Council says there is no simple solution to stop the rural town of Middlemarch from flooding, but the risk to life is lower than expected. In recent years, flooding has spread water and contaminated muck through homes, businesses and streets, impacting bores and blocking roads. On Tuesday, the council hosted a community meeting to discuss the latest flood update and potential ways to reduce them. The sound of heavy rains sparked anxiety for some Middlemarch residents, as swelling streams flowed down the Rock and Pillar Range towards the town. In 2018, a deluge turned some streets into sewage ponds with one business flooding to knee-deep filthy water . Ruth Manning has owned a holiday home in Middlemarch for more than 20 years - it has been hit twice in recent floods. "So about 50 to 60 centimetres up the wall the water damage spread. I've had to have the carpet fully replaced twice and most of the furnishings that were in the cottage replaced as well," she said. "That's two insurance claims and we have been advised now that we won't be insured again should it happen again and our excess has gone up to $5000." The community hall was packed with Middlemarch residents who wanted to hear about the latest science and solutions from Otago Regional Council. The council found existing culverts, channels and bridges were too small, there were no easy solutions and they would likely be costly and challenging to implement. But council's flood hazard analyst Nathan Anderson said there was also some good news, including debris flow not being a major concern . "The risk of people losing their lives or getting injured ... is what specifically our focus was and that is relatively low because we don't have areas that are getting extremely deep or moving very fast," he said. One resident told the meeting that calling it low risk did not properly account for the toll it took on the community. "I think that underplays and undervalues the stresses that people have that live in the flood-prone areas and when the rain hits, I get a number of phone calls from people that live in those areas that have been flooded and they're damned anxious," he said. Flooding in Middlemarch in 2021. Photo: Supplied / Robin Thomas Nathan Anderson acknowledged the concerns, saying that the risk to life might be low but the council was aware of the other impacts from flooding. A flooded caravan did not deter Patrick Flanagan from settling here about five years ago. "It didn't stop us from building, we just had to build 400 millimetres above any known flood height," he said. "For the community, it was a bit devastating because some businesses closed down and, obviously, it puts a lot of stress on people whose places are very close to flooding." He was pleased to see the council were taking the issue seriously and he hoped to see more solutions that would help to protect homes in the community. Ruth Manning was keen to see some longer term solutions that could help Middlemarch to grow, saying it was an affordable place to live. "There's multiple residential properties here in the area and I think people are put off by the risk of flooding and actually buying in the first place," she said. "But if we had a good flood mitigation scheme, then it would actually attract more people to this area." In 2023, the council installed a new rain gauge to boost flood forecasting in the area. Improving channels, creating a diversion channel and debris basins were among the possible solutions, but Nathan Anderson said there was no silver bullet solution despite using modelling to test a range of different options. The ballpark figures ranged from about $2 million to upwards of $15 million and did not include design or land costs. "We're here to help solve their problems. That's really what we hope to get out of it," Anderson said. "At the end of the day, it really comes down to it's going to be their decision of how they want to achieve that balance between cost and effectiveness." Another resident told the meeting that the flooding hit their water bores and could potentially take weeks to fix, forcing people to boil their water to brush their teeth or rely on water tankers. Angela and Shane Foster hoped to start building their Middlemarch home in the next 12 months. Armed with information from the council and locals, they were opting for a foundation that would raise it up on piles to give them more protection, he said. "We are on a wee bit of an incline so we believe from what we've been told it doesn't get that far up but one in 100 year (flood) could get that far up," he said. Angela Foster said the community wanted to see some action. "There has been a lot of modelling done in offices. There's been a lot of interesting work done behind the scenes, but there doesn't seem to be much happening on the ground," she said. "I think if people see things happening on the ground, whether it be widening of creeks or clearing out of creeks or whatever it may be, if they could see some actual work it might help people's view that they're being helped and not just being forgotten about." Otago Regional Council hoped to have more detailed options to show the community in the next year, but said it was clear that the community wanted to hear more about solutions. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Nursing union members hold stop work meetings over stalled pay talks
File photo. The Nurses Organisation and Health NZ have been in bargaining since late last year. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Nurses are looking for better pay and higher staff-to-patient ratios after rejecting the latest Health NZ offer, a Nurses' Organisation delegate says. A series of stop-work meetings take place this week to discuss the next steps following a vote by members to turn down the offer. Wellington Hospital delegate Hilary Gardner said a commitment to improving staff-to-patient ratios was needed, and the pay increase was essentially a pay cut. "It's what's not in the offer that's the big concern for us. There's not a lot that commitment for health and safety and safe staffing." She said nothing was off the table, including strike action. Health NZ said it wanted nurses to return to the bargaining table to resolve the issue. Gardener said the rejected offer came after many days of bargaining already since their contract expired late last year. Health NZ regional deputy chief executive Dr Mike Shepherd said it believed the offer was fair. "The employment relations authority agrees with that view, we're really keen that our nursing colleagues return to the negotiation table, so we can continue this conversation, so we can continue delivering the care our community needs. "We really respect our nursing colleagues, we do need to be fiscally prudent, and we've made this offer. "We think nursing pay rates have had a number of uplifts over recent years and of course we're keen to continue to that conversation," he said. He said there was a system in place, set up in conjunction with the nursing union, that matches demand on the wards with the nurses available.
