New team on way to help Marlborough build road to recovery
Thursday, 5 August 2021
A recovery team is being brought in to help Marlborough Roads tackle the mammoth repair job across the region.
The severe rain and flooding event on July 17 damaged an estimated 100 kilometres of Marlborough’s roading network, including bridges. The rebuild, dubbed the Road to Recovery by council staff, is expected to cost $20 million.
While more than 125 contractors and sub-contractors, 25 diggers and 40 trucks were working to get the roads back in action, Marlborough’s Recovery Manager Dean Heiford said he understood the work was not happening as fast as the several isolated communities would like.
A recovery team was arriving shortly to help redouble Marlborough Roads’ efforts, and bolster resources.
**READ MORE:
* Repairing Marlborough's flood-damaged roads to cost $20m
* Renewed calls for flood protection for waterlogged Wairau Valley
* Isolated residents look for boat mates for a 'Covid-19 trip'
* Mayoral Relief Fund for Marlborough as stop banks shored up before more rain arrives
**
Most of Marlborough’s population had been able to carry on as normal after the storm event, but the rural communities of the Waihopai Valley and the Awatere Valley, and the Marlborough Sounds residents on Queen Charlotte Drive, Kenepuru Rd and Kaiuma Bay Rd, still had very limited road access, if any.
“These residents and communities face a long journey back to normality,” Heiford said.
“In some places, in particular in the Marlborough Sounds, the roads as we knew them will never be the same due to the extent of the damage caused. It was an already vulnerable network which makes the task even more complex.”
A four-wheel-drive convoy visited damage on Queen Charlotte Drive and Kenepuru Rd on Tuesday, where extra rain last week worsened slips. The road was still closed to the public.
“There is no substitute for seeing the damage first-hand to understand the sheer scale of the remedial work required. It also makes it hit home how close some of our Marlborough Sounds’ residents were to harm,” Heiford said.
“It’s been said, in places, some of the damage is as severe as that seen following the Kaikōura earthquake. It’s a humbling reminder of the power of Mother Nature.”
The 1.9km long Pukenui slip, near the community of Moenui on Queen Charlotte Drive, was one example where the hillside gave way, taking a couple of unoccupied properties with it and leaving one, with holidaymakers sheltering inside, behind.
More than 25,000 cubic metres of soil and rock had been removed from slips along Queen Charlotte Drive, Kenepuru Rd and Kaiuma Bay Rd since the storm. Early estimates predicted more than 100,000 cubic metres of spill material would have been removed by the end of the clean-up.
Marlborough Roads manager Steve Murrin said one of the worst road slumps, just before Ohingaroa Bay on Kenepuru Rd, would take two months to fix and would likely cost close to $600,000.
“This is the worst I have ever seen Kenepuru Rd affected, in all the 32 years I have been associated with roading in Marlborough,” he said.
Geotechnical engineers had largely completed their assessments of the damaged roads and slips around the region and reinstatement works had started in many areas.
DOC said the Queen Charlotte Track was also extensively damaged, and could take months to fix.
Heiford said the recovery team appreciated how many of the people affected showed “amazing resilience and resourcefulness”.
He also asked the public to respect road closures.
“The danger is real on those roads in the region left damaged by this event. We have been fortunate not to have had anyone injured and we wish to keep it that way. If a road is closed, there is a compelling safety reason for this, for both the public, residents and the road workers who are putting in a mammoth effort at this time.” he said.
For road closures and other recovery information, visit the July 2021 Storm Event page on the Marlborough District Council website.