Waimea Dam starts filling after cost blowout, delays

The problem-plagued Waimea Dam is a step closer to being complete after it was closed off on Friday and started filling over the weekend.

It's the largest publicly funded dam to be completed since the Clyde Dam in 1992 and will eventually secure the region's water supply for the next 100 years.

1News took a tour of the dam today along with Tasman Mayor Tim King and Nelson Mayor Nick Smith who have both been involved in the project for decades.

After only a few days, and a large amount of rain over the weekend, the water in the valley is already around 20m deep.

"It's a bloody great milestone to reach and I guess my biggest feeling actually is a sense of relief," King said.

Relief because the project has faced a laundry list of issues over the years. It's more than a year behind schedule and it's original price tag of $105 million has blown out to at least $198 million.

King said the long-term benefits to the region are huge. "I'm confident that over time the benefits both economically, socially and environmentally will be worth it."

The latest issue was a two-month delay waiting for the contractor to complete quality assurance documents. Waimea Water's chief executive Mike Scott said it was unexpected.

"It was frustrating, Jess, but in the scheme of things it just delays the filling and won't impact the fact that we'll have the water ready for use next season."

Over winter the reservoir will continue to fill and will eventually hold 13 billion litres of water.

The Waimea Dam has been controversial, with many public meetings and protests over the years. Opponents to the dam cited a range of issues including that it's in the wrong place and poor consultation.

But others say the project has highlighted how difficult it is for councils to build large scale infrastructure.

Nelson Mayor Nick Smith, who has been involved previously as the local MP and Environment Minister, said these types of projects are "tremendously challenging".

"Whether you look at Transmission Gully in Wellington or you look at the central rail project in Auckland or the Christchurch stadium, they've all gone over budget but that should not have us lose our stomach for having us build the infrastructure that New Zealand needs for the future".

Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett said there's been a lack of leadership from central government.

"It's projects like this when they do happen, we don't have the muscle memory in, often in local expertise to be able to complete these."

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He said there needs to be a long-term pipeline of infrastructure projects.

"So we build a project, like Transmission Gully, and the expertise goes away again because the next cab off the rank isn't there and that's because we don't plan infrastructure centrally, we don't fund infrastructure properly".