Clay Harris
Lessons from OFPS build relevant today
Waikato Regional Council’s confirmation of the designed flood capacity of the Ōtorohanga Flood Protection Scheme (ŌFPS) will be welcome news to the community.
This reassurance is timely given the catastrophic damage to other river channels and stopbanks caused by ex-Cyclone Gabrielle.
There are lessons from the building of the ŌFPS that are relevant today, in that the complex and challenging scheme took only eight years from design to completion.
Following the February 1958 flood, then Minister of Works, Hugh Watt, saw the devastation first-hand, including the damage to the Government-owned main road and railway.
He inspected the damage and immediately gave the green light to government funding towards a flood protection scheme.
This authorisation gave the Waikato Valley Authority and the Ōtorohanga County Council the go-ahead and, led by legendary long-time WVA and ŌCC chair Jack Wallis, they wasted no time getting the design team together.
Preliminary work involved purchasing properties, removing buildings, closing or moving roads, installing Bailey bridges, and locating the new channels for the Waipā, Mangapu and Mangawhero rivers.
Plans were drawn up for river realignment and stopbank building, rebuilding and extending road bridges, installing pumping stations and raising the railway line above Otewa Road, the Waipa River and what would become Huiputea Drive.
The main construction contract went to Waitomo earthmoving contractor Jeff Lee, with sub-contractors C L Young from Rotorua and Tuck Construction from Kihikihi (earthworks), and C F Reese & Co from Hamilton (bridges and pumping stations).
The scheme was notable for both the speed of construction and the very high standard of workmanship.
There were no major “unknown factors” or “unforeseen circumstances” causing delays and budget blow-outs like those that seem to plague many of today’s infrastructure projects.
By March 1966, the ŌFPS was complete and in operation, and 57 years on is still doing its job as well as when it was built.
It is a lasting tribute to all those involved in the 1960s, and an example of the excellent project management and construction that is sorely needed today.
Stuart Gower
Ōtorohanga
Incorrect spelling of name
It does seem that our beloved paper is starting to resemble other publications, but we have long hoped that journalistic standards will be upheld here in one of the last bastions of the community newspaper.
I write to express our sadness that an amazing young achiever has had his surname incorrectly recorded throughout an article celebrating his achievements despite another summary of results on the same page recording it correctly.
Clay Harris is the young person referred to, not Harrison, despite some of that surname potentially being happy to claim him.
Please rectify this, and not in the “corrections” column either.
He and his family deserve better, especially as he epitomises so many qualities we try to instil in our young people today.
Tracey Neal
- King Country News apologises for the incorrect spelling of Clay Harris’ surname. King Country News loves to highlight the achievements of its young people, like Clay, and we wish him all the success he is no doubt going to achieve in future endeavours.
