Cyclone Gabrielle: Massive bill to repair roads and, in some cases, move roads in response to ravaging floods

The cost of rebuilding roads will be massive. Photo / Wayne Edwards

New Zealand faces a massive bill to repair and make roads more resilient in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle which has swept away bridges, highways, and local roads across the North Island.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, speaking from Gisborne, said it was “almost certainly time” to rethink parts of the road network.

“We have to get real about some of the roads and the fact we are going to have to move some of the roads to where they are more resilient,” he said.

His comments are mirrored by the head of the national roading agency, who today said the cost of reinstating damage from the storms will be in the order of three-to-five times the cost of existing reinstatement costs.

Addressing Auckland Council’s transport and infrastructure committee, Waka Kotahi chief executive Nicole Rosie said normal reinstatement will not solve the problems caused by the flood damage.

Cyclone Gabrielle has caused enormous damage to roads. Pictured is State Highway 5 in Hawke's Bay. Photo / Warren Buckland

She said at a minimum it will cost three-to-five times the cost of normal reinstatement costs and, in some cases, 10 times more.

Rosie said these numbers are indicative and have not been quantified for the storm events.

What’s more, she said there is a “significant gap” between Waka Kotahi’s work programme over the next 10 years and revenue in the order of $30 billion to $40b. The transport agency is working with the Government on a funding review, she said.

“Now you overlay these events and it is even more significant,” Rosie said.

The flood events have also opened a debate in Auckland about where houses are built, with Mayor Wayne Brown saying that will be especially the case in areas where intensification is taking place without adequate infrastructure.

“We have known for a long time that climate change was going to raise these issues and we cannot hide from that reality now. That is likely to come at a cost to the council and central Government,” he told an extraordinary emergency committee meeting yesterday.

Last week, the council’s planning committee set up an investigation into the implications of the January 27 floods on infrastructure and planning issues.

Today, the council’s stormwater boss Craig McIlroy told councillors the size of the event had changed so much, therefore much of the standards will have to change.

A petition from 30 community organisations was today presented to Auckland councillors calling on the council to withdraw Plan Change 78, which responds to the Government and National’s directive for more intensification in Auckland.

Under the directive, anyone can build up to three homes, three storeys high, on most residential sites in Auckland without a resource consent. The council does, however, have the ability to exclude areas in hazard areas from the new rules.