An aerial shot of the earthworks in Zone 4 of the Te Ahu a Turanga highway site. Photo / Supplied
Despite recent knockbacks, the team working on Te Ahu a Turanga Manawatu-Tararua highway are committed to completing the project on schedule.
Waka Kotahi owner interface manager for the project Grant Kauri said the recent rain had hampered progress somewhat.
"Obviously our machinery's not moving because it's not safe to do so."
However, he said an application had been submitted for a winter works consent which would allow them to carry on construction over the winter.
"There's obviously some stringent protocols that we need to work towards, which are applied by regional council."
Kauri said they had a successful winter works season last year and they were wanting to continue to progress on the good work they'd done in the past.
Covid had also played its part in hampering progress, with an increase in absenteeism, and adapting to the traffic light system, he said.
"It has had its effect, but for us it's just continuing to manage that, looking at our programme as a whole and identifying opportunities that we have. We still have a couple more years to go and we're looking forward to some good weather and hope we don't have any more rain for a little while to come."
The project had recently made a good milestone with Bridge One being completed and construction of some of the other large bridges already well under way.
Kauri said that as of last month they were able to celebrate the project moving 2 million cubic metres of earthworks.
"That's a third of our total project programme of earthworks that we need to move."
People driving from Woodville to Ashhurst would now be able to see the result of some of that earthworks on the Woodville side.
"You can really start to see that opening up as well. Overall we're making some really good progress," Kauri said.
When asked if Te Ahu a Turanga was at risk of the same delays seen on Transmission Gully, Mr Kauri said they were two very different projects.
"We're pretty open in our approach and where we are - that's a testament to how the project has been set up from the start."
A big part of that was the support through the partnership with stakeholders.
Kauri said an added benefit from Transmission Gully was that "some of our alliance partners were part of that project".
He said now that project was open, it would allow them to look at their manpower in specialised areas and beef up resources in that space as well.
"We're committed to our December 2024 road opening and that's something the region knows about and we're continuing to communicate that.
"Despite all the recent knockbacks, we just continue to look at our opportunities and again just things like the winter works application, these are things that all aid our success in the opening."
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