As communicated to affected Piha and Karekare residents on 23 February, we will be finalising most landslide reports this week and confirming those property categories in early March, a week or so later than originally expected. This will be our biggest batch of category confirmations so far, providing certainty for homeowners and the community.
The delay has been caused by:
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The very complex geomorphology in the area. We are still actively monitoring movement on a few sites because the land stability continues to change
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Difficulty confirming risk levels. There are some study clusters where we thought the risk was relatively low until rocks freed up by the initial landslide started to move. On other properties we had assessed the risk, then work on a neighbouring property which impacted the risk factors and meant we needed to do some reassessment.
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The demand for engineers with the very senior level of expertise needed to complete this challenging work.
There are also a small number of properties that require further work because of new information regarding emerging rockfall hazards changing geotech risk or flood risk. We have contacted these homeowners directly to explain this.
We appreciate that every delay extends the stresses that come with homeowner’s current situations and uncertainty about the future. We are grateful for your continued patience and look forward to confirming the majority of categories in early March.
If you, or your whānau needs help, we have navigators available to support you. Please email your navigator directly or contact navigators@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.
UPDATE: 14 March
Auckland Council has now confirmed property categories for 88 out of 119 properties in Piha and Karekare. The remaining 31 properties in the GHD study areas will receive their categories over the next couple of weeks and we have communicated this to these property owners directly.
GNS Science monitoring data
Your assessment report may refer to GNS Science monitoring data. To find this information, you can visit the GeoNet website and zoom in on the national map and click on the Rayner Road receiver. You will be provided with graphs that will show any movement at the site.
