Marooned residents on Whangārei’s coast are frustrated that the pilot vehicle system, designed to keep them safe, is not running to specified hours.
About 800 homes in Ōakura, Helena Bay, Teal Bay and Whangaruru are hemmed in by a huge slip on Russell Rd, at Helena Bay hill, which is expected to take months to fix.
The shortest alternative route is a treacherous one along Webb Rd, across the unsealed and narrow Kaiikanui Rd, and onto Whananaki North Rd.
To ensure the route remains safe and functional, Whangārei District Council is running a traffic management system, with two pilot vehicles escorting traffic through Kaiikanui Rd.
Council maintenance contracts lead Tim Ward said two pilot vehicles ran every day, with a waiting time of up to 35 minutes between each convoy.
The two pilot vehicles started at 7am at each end of the road, with the last piloted convoy finishing at 6pm, he said.
But residents say the pilot vehicles have not been sticking to these times this week, making commuters late for work in the morning or unsafe at night.
Teal Bay resident Ant Backhouse, who lives on Webb Rd, where vehicles start queueing for the convoy, said the mornings and evenings were “chaotic”, with residents commuting one way for work and contractors driving the opposite way.
On Monday morning, the traffic management did not set up on Webb Rd until about 7.15am and the first pilot did not start until 7.50am, he said.
His wife, who decided it was too dangerous to drive the route without the pilot, ended up late for work on Monday.
She was now staying in central Whangārei during the week but still needed the pilot to be on time on Friday evenings and Monday mornings.
Backhouse said the council had done a good job of cleaning up other slips in the area, and the pilot system worked well when it was running.
“I think people like the idea of the pilot ... there’s some long wait times, but we balance that up with the safety.”
He thought the pilot system should start earlier in the mornings and run later in the evenings to catch the commuter traffic and keep the route safe.
“It’s just about keeping the road safe and open. It’s a very long drive around Ōpua if that road [Kaiikanui] slips further.”
Another Teal Bay resident, Peter Johnston, feared Kaiikanui Rd would not hold up to the ongoing traffic or bad weather.
On Tuesday, a truck nearly slid down the bank as it pulled over for oncoming traffic.
Johnston said some parts of the road were slipping away, and he feared what would happen when rain hit again. A heavy rain watch is in force for Northland today, from 9am to 10pm.
He also confirmed that the first pilot vehicles were not leaving Webb Rd this week until about 7.45am.
He believed more should be done to pilot commuters and contractors at the start and end of the day, and to slow them down when they got to the seal on Webb Rd.
“If it’s controlled properly, it should be all right.”
Ward said the council was investigating Tuesday’s truck incident and was looking to install more “keep left” signs.
“We are reinforcing our communications that cars must keep to the left, drive with awareness of oncoming vehicles, drive to the conditions and obey traffic rules, even when following a pilot vehicle.
“This stretch of road is extremely hazardous, which is why we are urging non-essential and non-local traffic to use the Opua ferry to access the Ōakura coast.”
Ward said the slip on Russell Rd at Helena Bay hill was expected to take 12 to 16 weeks to fix, meaning it was unlikely to reopen until May or June.
Visual observations showed the slip was continuing to move.
The council also wanted to monitor the historic underslip on Russell Rd – which caused the road to close for four months in 2007 – to ensure it was safe to handle the large loads that needed to be hauled across it, he said.
The council was also looking for additional cleanfill sites and still had to create access from the eastern side of the slip.
Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.