Quake-damaged land in Christchurch is being given room to flood, allowing nature to flourish.
Christchurch City Council has released the next swathe of regeneration projects for the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor.
The council's Andrew Rutledge said preparations are underway to progress work on the City to Sea Pathway and the Bexley wetland, which is focused on returning it to a more natural state.
Houses in the subdivision once known as Pacific Park had to be pulled down after the earthquake in 2011, and the land sits almost empty except for a few roads, street poles, and grass lawns.
It sits next to the Bexley estuary and wetland and used to flood before stop banks were put in to accommodate development.
The wetland is known as an internationally important habitat for migratory birds.
Research shows that allowing the land to flood again will increase wildlife threefold.
“We’ll let the river and the estuary back into this area and let it naturalise to its former state.
“It would have been an estuarine delta with different water levels depending on weather conditions and tides, reasonably saline and so quite a rich food environment for mana whenua back in those times, lots of eels and shellfish, flounder,” said Rutledge.
The creation of an estuarine wetland at Bexley, complete with improved stopbanks and stormwater treatment capabilities will be planned in conjunction with a project to upgrade the Pages Road bridge.
New stopbanks will be constructed further away from the river’s edge and the current stop banks will be removed.
New features planned for the area include a riverside landing (as a future stage), shared path access, a protected bird roost/nesting site and some forested areas at the southern end of the wetland, where the land is higher and has less salt in the groundwater.
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