Planning continues for power line undergrounding

June 21st, 2014
[by David Armstrong]

The undergrounding of power lines for the lower southern section of High Street looks likely to be confirmed in Council's annual plan which will be adopted next week.

Press releases from TDC about the annual plan, and subsequent news items in the media, have spoken mainly of changes to the contentious, big-ticket items such as tourism funding, the cycle trail, Golden Bay's recreation centre and Motueka's library.

Missing from any comment has been the power line undergrounding project which is being proposed jointly by TDC with Network Tasman. Several people have been wondering if the project was still in the plan.

At Keep Motueka Beautiful's June meeting on Monday the Council's horticultural officer Kathy Curnow said the project was still in the annual plan but nothing definite could be stated until Council formally adopted the plan before the end of the financial year.

In the meantime, she was assuming that the undergrounding would go ahead and this past week she was to meet with various parties involved in the detailed work, including roading engineers, traffic management teams and Council's environmental people.

Keep Motueka Beautiful's interest in the project centres on the planting of an avenue of trees on each side of the road, to coincide with surface repair after digging and trenching. However, it seems that Council staff will now choose the trees that will be planted.

Kathy told KMB's committee that her team will decide which existing trees will be retained, how they will be protected from digging work, which new species will be planted and where. KMB had already consulted with affected property owners.

The undergrounding project is in two stages: the first from the roundabout to King Edward Street and the second from King Edward to Whakarewa Street. Only stage one will be tackled in this round, and once TDC's financial contribution is confirmed it should be completed this year.

The more dangerous second stage could only be tackled after the first section is completed, because the existing above-ground cabling would not be capable of carrying the power to the second section.

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