Engineering resilience – flood protection for the West Coast

Flood protection on New Zealand’s West Coast is a complex challenge. The region’s rugged terrain and the ever-present risk of extreme weather events require smart, responsive engineering to build resilience and support the needs of local communities.

The Hokitika Flood Protection project offers insights into how an integrated, multidisciplinary response, combined with a strong local presence, can meet these challenges.

Following a severe flood in 2021, the West Coast Regional Council engaged us to deliver emergency works, prioritising the protection of one of the region’s largest employers by raising the nearby stopbank. Since then, the project has involved further stages to raise other other sections of the embankment and improve climate resilience.

Our approach combined urgency with precision, and involved:

• raising the stopbanks: increasing the height of the existing embankment in multiple stages and using over 30,000 tonnes of rock from Camelback Quarry to armour the riverbank and enhance long-term protection
• integrated expertise: providing geotechnical investigations and surveying through to civil design and consenting, working seamlessly to deliver under tight timeframes
• smart technology: using drone surveys, Pointcloud manipulation and cloud-based CAD file sharing to support fast-paced emergency works
• community and environmental sensitivity: carefully planning around a busy railway line and a popular recreation area to minimise disruption to walkers, cyclists and the whitebait season
• monitoring for the future: establishing a network of monitoring bores to assess groundwater and geotechnical conditions, providing insights to support long-term climate resilience.

As Henry Winter, our West Coast Geotechnical Lead, puts it:
“Flood protection goes beyond water management—it requires an understanding of the ground beneath, the community it serves, and the environmental challenges they face. In Hokitika, we’ve blended geotechnical expertise with local knowledge to deliver robust infrastructure that safeguards and strengthens the community.”

This project demonstrates what can be achieved through collaboration, innovation and a deep commitment to the communities we serve. As climate risks grow, so does the importance of proactive flood protection. Designed not just to withstand the next storm, but to support the people and places that make the West Coast unique.

Part of our commitment is employing locals and having a permanent presence on the Coast. We have had an office in Greymouth since 2006 and had a satellite office in Westport.