Realigning at Black’s Beach to fix dropout

Wairoa District Council is planning a significant realignment of the road above the blowhole near Blacks Beach.

WORK to realign the road at the blowhole dropout end of Black’s Beach is likely to begin in a couple of months.

The main coastal route into Mahia has been reduced to one lane over the past year after slipping and a significant crack across the centre line in the road occurred.

Design work has now been completed, which involves pushing the road away from the coastline and closer to the rail line.

Realigning the road requires several stakeholders to agree on allowing the critical main road to Mahia to move further inland.

Wairoa District Council has made an application to KiwiRail and an adjacent land owner to realign the road and rail line, which will require the excavation of 25,000 cubic metres of rock out of the hill above the blowhole.

The project is expected to cost around $1.6 million.

The blowhole area has been on the move for years, with residents recalling a significant subsidence in the 1950s.

The slip plane has been exacerbated by coastal erosion at the foot of the hill.

There have been successive block movements around the blowhole over the past few years and a concrete beam installed in an attempt to stop the slipping is no longer effective.

Wairoa District Council chief executive Steven May said Geotech advice had been that the only way to fix the problem was to move the road out of the slip plane.

Council is hopeful the project will go out for tender in the next couple of months, with work scheduled to begin in October/November and expected to be finished by next autumn. — Wairoa Star