Work on Route 52 through Tararua hampered by slips - 'Winter did a real number on us'

Slip caused by the high levels of ground saturation being experienced onsite this winter. Photo / Supplied

Millions of dollars worth of damage during winter created a few setbacks for teams working on Route 52.

Winter "had done a real number on us", Tararua Alliance capital projects manager Andrew Desmond said at a community meeting.

He said the winter season for the Huarahi-Tūhono Weber to Wimbledon road had been "pretty tough".

The last community meeting to provide an update on the road was in March, not long after Cyclone Dovi in February and just before the next storm.

Further bad weather over June/July, August and September caused extensive damage.

Battling the landscape - Progression of damage to Route 52 caused by saturated soils resulting in mass-land movements - March. Photo / Supplied

The road continues to move along Route 52. Photo / Supplied

Desmond said the approximate value of the damage on the section of Route 52 the project covered was $3 million.

"These are areas outside of our planned work scope."

He said the value of damage across the network as a whole was $16 million, however, the cost of the September damage had yet to be valued.

"We were going from slip to slip to slip," he said.

Major works meant to have started over the winter had to be stopped because of the rain.

The team had been clearing up slips and "dancing back and forth doing planned work", maintaining sites that had some minor damage to make sure they were safe.

The project had been focusing on priorities, such as improving route resilience and safety improvements.

An aspirational goal was to make improvements in route consistency, Desmond said.

"Making sure that when you're driving the road, you're not going to come up to little bits that catch you out," he said.

But based on the series of storm events this goal had to be reprioritised to focus on resilience.

According to rainfall data taken from Horizons Regional Council sites at Rua Roa, Tamaki Reserve and Akitio, the average total rainfall for the 12 months from November 2021 to October 2022 was just over 2000mm.

Historically, the average annual rainfall has been about 1100mm.

It's been a wet winter. Working outside hasn't been the most pleasant role considering the rain & wind, but someone's got to do it. On a positive note... Summer's coming. Photo / Supplied

Some farmers had commented that they'd seen a lot more rain than normal leading to various issues on their properties.

A common occurrence along Route 52 between Weber and Wimbledon. Photo / Supplied

Slumping of the road caused by mass-land movement due to saturated soils. Photo / Supplied

Desmond said there were 16 dropouts, with seven of them outside the scope of the project: "New areas we hadn't been looking at doing any work on".

The funding for those emergency works had to be applied for through Waka Kotahi.
Desmond said they had submitted applications, with three already submitted equating to $7 million.

"We've got a bit of a way to go to match the available funds versus needed funds. We are having to provide a heap more info due to the NZTA funding scrutiny."

He said while repairs were progressed, they still had to keep going with the project.

"We've got some due dates coming up with another measurable date in December to complete a certain portion of work that enables the next payment from Kānoa, the funding agency."

Meantime Tararua Alliance was continuing to work with farmers in the area to identify any problem sites, including springs.

Wimbledon Tavern owner Eric Gathercole suggested the team do a bit of door-knocking to talk to property owners about those issues, rather than the team waiting for the owners to go to them.

Tararua District Councillor Sharon Wards wants to make sure the community is being listened to. Photo / NZME

Tararua District Councillor Sharon Wards, who attended, said she was pleased to see some frank and upfront discussion of the issues at the meeting.

The project hadn't been straightforward and she acknowledged the frustration in the community that there hadn't been as much progress as they would have liked.

"We acknowledge that the community have knowledge and awareness of the impact of climate on their own particular area."

Wards said she was keen to ensure that the community didn't sit on the sidelines and wait for failure to occur.

"We want to be able to turn this around and make sure that we continue to walk alongside the community and encourage the communication."

She said if people felt the community consultation evenings weren't the right mechanism "then tell us what is".

"I'm also well aware that if we're not getting it right, tell us now because we've still got time and resources to be able to ensure that as we build this road, we want it to be resilient. We don't want to go back in two or three years' time and be doing patch-up all over again."

Wards said she was there to ensure the community was being listened to and whether there was a need to change tack as to how council got those messages.