$8.2m flood protection work 'well under way'

"THE levee alone will not keep floodwaters out of our CBD... flood mitigation work will go a long way to protecting our city from future floods."

WORK UNDERWAY: Lismore City Council mayor Isaac Smith, SEE Civil project manager Michael Williams and Cr Bill Moorhouse inspect the earthworks of the South Lismore Flood Mitigation project. Picture: Jackie Munro

THE $8.2 million South Lismore Flood Mitigation Project is set to lower the impact of flooding on Lismore CBD, and work is well underway.

Lismore City Council mayor Isaac Smith inspected the progress today and said it was fantastic to see work progressing.

"This project, which will help reduce the devastating effects of flooding in Lismore, has been discussed for decades and it is great to be here today to see that work has finally began," he said.

"As we saw in the 2017 flood, the levee alone will not keep floodwaters out of our CBD if we get too much rain.

"This new flood mitigation work will go a long way to protecting our city from future floods."

He said flood modelling by Worley Parsons in 2016 suggests the project should reduce peak water levels in the CBD, North Lismore and South Lismore by as much as 100mm in a 1-in-100-year flood event.

The project, which was funded by the NSW Government, will divert floodwater overflow from Leycester Creek around the Lismore Regional Airport.

This includes the excavation of 410,000 cubic metres of material from a 58-hectare parcel of council land.

Cr Smith said the excavated material will be used to fill nearby industrial land within Lismore's floodplain and facilitate the expansion of the South Lismore Industrial Estate.

"This means not only will we see reduced flooding in the Lismore CBD, but we will also be able to offer more flood-free industrial land for commercial use," he said.

The council's director of infrastructure services Peter Jeuken said work is expected to take 12 months to complete.

"This project was endorsed by the Lismore Floodplain Management Committee and is part of a range of measures detailed in the Lismore Flood Mitigation Plan to help safeguard the community and increase disaster resilience," he said.