Despite disruptions caused by COVID-19 restrictions and some very uncooperative weather, the Turangi Street Revitalisation project is making great progress.
The project aims to revitalise Turangi streets by replacing kerbing and channelling damaged by trees and was an initiative by the Turangi Tongariro Community Board and Taupō District Council, with $6.5 million in funding awarded as one of the government’s “shovel ready” COVID-19 response projects. Packages one and two of the project were approved by the Community Board last year, and Project Manager Peter van Niekerk says the team have made excellent progress and are currently ahead of schedule.
“Package one was completed in October last year,” Peter said, “and we are currently working in Marotoa, Rea and Hera groves as part of package two. If the fine weather continues we should see package two completed in the coming weeks, and the Community Board have now approved package three, which includes Patikura Place, Rota Street, Toi Grove, Nehi Grove, Poihaere Street, Meri Grove, Raukura Street, Noni Street, and Te Whakarau Street. Work is already underway on tree removals in Noni Street and Te Whakarau Street.
“We have a really great team in Turangi,” Peter said, “with a lot of locals putting in some hard work to really improve the streetscapes of their town. In December the team poured 750ms of kerbing and channelling in a single day, which is an amazing result, and we have also had our water truck out and about regularly watering the trees we have replanted in the berms. The damage done to footpaths by tree roots can be considerable, making them unsafe and hazards for mobility scooter users, and the damage to gutters means there is water pooling in some streets. So the new kerbing and channelling makes a huge difference – both to safety and the appearance of the streets – and we have had great feedback from residents, many of whom have been battling the leaf falls from the larger trees for many years.”
Downer team leader Dayna Morgan said residents had been fantastic and very welcoming to the project.
“We have two new team members with us now, both Turangi locals, and it’s great to have them on board,” she said. “It’s also great to be working with the community on this. We’ve had good conversations with those directly affected by the tree removals and concreting – and we’ve also had quite a bit of baking brought out to the team, ice blocks on the hot days, and even some smoked trout! So a big thank you to everyone for that – it’s a great welcome!”
