New Zealand: Pukekura Park Dredging Begins

The clean-up has begun of a section of Pukekura Park’s lake system.

Last week the dredging of sediment from the Main Lake was stopped when the upper part of the Serpentine, between the main and lily lakes, was clogged with fresh sediment.

Manager Parks Mark Bruhn says a sucker truck is being used to pump the sediment into a truck for removal.

“It will take two to three weeks to clean up the Serpentine,” he says.

“Meanwhile we’ve put up a barrier so that more sediment doesn’t travel from the Serpentine during the clean-up.”

The Main Lake’s water level has been dropped so that a last section of the lake edge can be rebuilt.

“With the lake level so low you can see the deep trench in the lake bottom that the dredge made as it cut away the sediment above Poet’s Bridge, between the islands, before we had to stop the work,” says Mr Bruhn.

“In its deepest sections the dredge encountered and removed sediment to a depth of four meters – twice as deep as we estimated the sediment to be. With that water-filled trench visible, the lakes’ sediment problem becomes even more obvious.”

The Council is considering its options for removing sediment from the main and fountain lakes, which will now take place next year after the park’s spring and summer events have finished.

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Press Release, September 9, 2013