Was the closing of bridges in Lower Hutt a psyop, or an "abundance of caution"?

That is not an assertion but points to a line of questioning

We have had massive flooding in the Wellington region in the past three days that started as massive downpours which caused serious flash floods as can be seen below.

For me, sitting at home in my armchair it was nothing but a rather miserable, wet couple of days although it clearly was not like that for many people.

WATER WITH NOWHERE TO GO

I came across this Facebook post from a local councillor, Brady Dyer with eminently sensible comments.

Pay particular attention to the last paragraphed (bolded)

With the heavy rain we’re seeing right now, a few people have asked me about flood risk and where the low-lying areas actually are in Lower Hutt.

Wellington Water has put together detailed stormwater flood modelling maps that cover most of the city, from Petone through to Eastbourne, Stokes Valley, and Wainuiomata. You can look up your own area and see where water is most likely to pool or flow when we get heavy rain like this.

A couple of things to keep in mind with these maps. They’re modelled on a 1 in 100 year event with climate change built in out to 2130, so what you see is closer to a worst case planning scenario than what’s happening today. They’re really designed for land use planning and development decisions. But they’re still really useful for understanding where the low-lying spots are in your neighbourhood.

Because when we think about flooding, most of us picture the river bursting its banks. But what we saw in Wellington city this morning, three times April’s entire monthly rainfall in just a few hours, is a different problem. That volume of water simply has nowhere to go fast enough, and it’s the low-lying areas and overloaded stormwater networks where it shows up first.

Stay safe everyone

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

It is not hard for anyone willing to use a bit of critical thinking to see where much of the volume of water that simply has nowhere to go fast enough comes from.

We live on a section with a garden and trees that can absorb that water quite quickly.

However, any one living in New Zealand with eyes open will know that many older properties have been torn down and replaced by nondescript blocks of flats (always painted grey).

Not only does this put pressure on already stressed water and sewage infrastructure but the gardens are replaced by concrete so that water from such downpours literally has nowhere to go except into a drainage system that is not designed to cope.

All this to presumably house all the Indian workers that Christopher Luxon is bringing into the country in huge numbers as part of his free trade agreement with Modi.

This is urban New Zealand.

We’ve always had events like this:

All of the above is quite understandable.

HOWEVER, THERE IS A BIG BUT

It was when I saw this news that I smelt a big decomposing rat.

The authorities announced that they were closing two major bridges leading into the Lower Hutt CBD.

This bridge.

Here is the announcement

This was the sort of stuff that was being put out on social media last night

One of the official posts came together with this photograph.

The only problem was the photo was not of the Hutt river, nor even, seemingly, from this region and people on social media picked it up immediately.

LOOKING FOR MYSELF

I was lying in bed last night with a sneaking suspicion that this was a false narrative with perhaps another agenda entirely feeding off the news.

I decided, when the sun came up, to go down to the river and have a look for myself and this is what we saw.

I was looking for signs that the river had come up massively sending debris (trees etc.) down - the sort of thing that could potentially damage a bridge (as hard as it is to imagine in the case of this particular bridge -the Ewan Bridge.

You can see from the slightly out-of-focus photo that there was nothing of the sort.

I could see in the distance that there were cars parked in the riverside carpark an area that has been flooded in previous extreme weather events going back 25 years or so.

Pam and I have lived in Alicetown by the Hutt River for 20 years and during that time I have observed far, far worse than what we saw this morning less than 12 hours after the official closure announcement.

In the year, 2006, when we first moved the whole flood plain where you can see the path on the right in the above photo.

We have seen times when there was massive flooding and the railway bridge just downriver was completely clogged up with debris.

So, as far as the Hutt River close to the CBD is concerned it seems like bit of a “nothingburger”

BRIDGE COLLAPSES IN NEW ZEALAND

As part of my research for this I checked just how many catastrophic bridge collapses or even damage to structure) there have been in New Zealand.

They have all been in rural areas in huge weather events and never to large urban bridges like this.

The only examples are the following:

• In March 2022, heavy rainfall (up to 300mm) in Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast caused the collapse of the main bridge over the Mangahuini River, cutting off the town and flooding schools, homes, and a marae

• In February 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle washed away eight bridges on the East Coast, including Rissington Bridge (a Bailey bridge) and Brookfields Bridge over the Tutaekuri River, isolating communities and damaging infrastructure

• In March 2019, the Waiho Bridge on State Highway 6 on the West Coast was destroyed by floodwaters after 800mm of rain fell in 24 hours — described by locals as a “lifeline” lost to preventable neglect

Do we need to remind ourselves?:

What we saw in Wellington city this morning, three times April’s entire monthly rainfall in just a few hours, is a different problem. That volume of water simply has nowhere to go fast enough, and it’s the low-lying areas and overloaded stormwater networks where it shows up first.

ALL OF THIS COMES INTHE CONTEXT OF MASSIVE DISRUPTION IN HUTT CITY

Although I am not going to assert it (I am only asking questions it is not difficult for me to draw a line between these events and massive disruptions caused by blocking off whole areas of central Lower Hutt all in the name of a Riverlink project that is purported to save the CBD from an event far more serious than we have just witnessed.

On the first afternoon of road works being in effect on Queens Drive and High Street in Lower Hutt traffic is heavy, as businesses say they are worried how the nine month-long closure is going to hit their bottom line.

The intersection between Queens Drive and High Street is closed from March through to December as part of the SH2 Melling Transport Improvements, part of the Te Wai Takamori o Te Awa Kairangi project, formally known as RiverLink.

The RiverLink works have already drawn the ire of local residents who have reported roadworks to date have caused gridlocks and long delays.

There have been reports that the traffic sometimes backs up the off-ramps and causes delays on the motorway.

Some say their commute times have tripled, hitting set after set of road works.

But others say the problems are worth bearing for the improvements the work will bring.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/588409/businesses-fear-months-of-roadworks-on-lower-hutt-streets-will-put-potential-customers-off

Now they closed two major bridges leading into the CBD without any real real reason that I can see, justified by the vaguest of justification in the announcements.

I have no doubt al this will be used as further justification for a massive project that, if nothing else, will provide work and a heap of money for the contractor mates of the councillors and national politicians.

To me, it all reeks of corruption.

I also have to ask what is going to happen in the light of a diesel fuel crisis that looks only get worse (if not catastrophic) as the Middle East war gets worse and worse.

At worst it could bring these projects to a grinding halt; at best it will produce yet another price blowout

THE WILLFUL DESTRUCTION OF COMMUNITY

A few months ago, when our local community centre was burnt down in a case of arson which, almost six months later, has STILL to be investigated by police.

I wrote extensively about hte Riverlink and other projects (such as cycleways) that have chewed up huge amounts of money and created huge levels of disruption for citizens.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/top/557150/cost-of-lower-hutt-s-riverlink-project-doubles-to-1-point-5-billion

Of course! This government (asa well as Councils) love major, destructive projects.

Here are some examples of the huge cost to communities.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/90887031/hutt-valley-infrastructure-projects-leave-industrial-property-in-short-supply

https://www.neighbourly.co.nz/public/lower-hutt/normandale/message/70218433

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/588366/major-through-road-in-lower-hutt-closes-for-next-nine-months

CONCLUSION

We now come back to the question in the title “ was the closing of bridges in Lower Hutt a psyop, or an “abundance of caution”?.

I am not asserting anything (so no “conspiracy theory”) - although I have my own private suspicions.

It is up to you, the reader, to reach your own conclusions.

Finally -

WHY THE EXTREME WEATHER?

In the past 25 years I have seen several cycles - massive floods and constant wet weather followed by droughts caused by el-Nino patterns (that I mistakenly saw, at the time, as part of a linear pattern of rapid climate change).

I now see them as cycles.

Typical of what we get from Greens is this:

I wrote this reply:

As I would expect there was no answer to my comment whereas, at least in the case of another thread, there was lots of to-and-fro. Just no response to my fact-based comment which came from the following report in the science publication Nature but has not, to my knowledge, had even a mention from New Zealand media or from government organisations such as the (to my mind) NIWA, even though the research is home-grown, from the University of Auckland.

Here is the item.

https://www.earth.com/news/tonga-volcanic-eruption-had-a-much-more-devastating-impact-than-we-knew/#google_vignette

My article from January:

One might have thought that this was worthy of considerable discussion in this country.

Instead, we have silence and ideology together with propaganda.

That is where we have come to as a country.