Northland news briefs

Hopefully a text test from Civil Defence will arrive at a more convenient time than an earlier one.

Glider pilot remembered

A celebration of Ricco Legler's life will be held at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel in Russell at 10.30am on Sunday.

Mr Legler — a lifelong aviation enthusiast, keen sailor, talented musician and one of Russell's great characters — died in a glider crash near Kaikohe last week. He was 72.

He is survived by his wife, Marina, and children, Li, Ken and Laila, from his first wife, Gitta, as well as seven grandchildren in New Zealand and Italy and 18 godchildren.

State highway repairs

The NZ Transport Agency is advising motorists it will be carrying out road repairs and maintenance to State Highway 1 through the Waipu Bypass during the next four weeks.

The work which will involve replacing the road surface between Nova Scotia Drive and Shoemaker Rd is to improve safety and resilience on this stretch of the state highway.
The road will be reduced to one lane and traffic management will be in place, including stop go at night.

There will also be detours for southbound traffic on three days during the following dates, November 27-December 1 and December 12-17. The work is expected to be finished by December 22.

Civil Defence alert test

Civil Defence will be running a nationwide test of the Emergency Mobile Alert system on Sunday. The alert will come through between 6pm-7pm. The Emergency Mobile Alert should appear automatically on your phone's screen with a unique and penetrating warning sound.

It is expected around one third of phones will initially be able to receive the alerts. This number is expected to rise substantially over time as people replace their phones with newer models.

Leak flows, so does traffic

A water leak on State Highway 1 on Western Hills Dr did not interrupt traffic flow yesterday. The New Zealand Transport Agency was alerted to the leak, on the northbound lane off Russell Rd turnoff, about 3pm yesterday and a spokesman said repair teams were sent to the site.

NZTA said one of the two north-bound lanes was closed but a check revealed no disruption to traffic. The cause of the leak was not yet known.