Hawke’s Bay: The slip that will cost $7 million to repair

The slip on Dartmoor Rd about 25 minute's drive west of Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor

A slip being fixed on a rural Hawke’s Bay road is going to cost Hastings District Council over $7 million to repair.

The project has highlighted the enormous cost associated with fixing the region’s roads and bridges following Cyclone Gabrielle last February.

Hastings District Council (HDC) predicts it will take a decade to fully repair its sprawling road network at a cost of around $800 million.

One major slip from the cyclone on Dartmoor Rd, about 25 minutes’ drive west of Napier, between Apley Rd and Dartmoor Bridge, is currently being repaired at a cost of over $7 million - albeit with some significant challenges.

“The repair of a major slip on Dartmoor Rd is an eight-month, approximately $7.2 million project, and is just one of many large slips requiring repair,” an HDC road update read.

“The Tūtaekurī River has been diverted to enable access to the slip face under Dartmoor Rd and this project is progressing well.”

Work earlier this year diverting the Tūtaekurī River, to allow work to begin on the Dartmoor Rd slip. Photo / HDC

A council spokeswoman said that repair project also included “a large culvert within the area”.

Construction began on repairing the slip in January and will continue through to September.

Dartmoor Rd services the Dartmoor community including a sizeable farming community.

HDC manages over 1600km of roads and bridges - roughly the length of New Zealand - and was the hardest hit council in terms of cyclone damage across the region.

Milestone reached for recovery

A milestone has been reached this month with a major culvert almost completed near Tutira.

Chrystal Twin Culvert was one of six large culverts and 13 bridges destroyed by Cyclone Gabrielle across Hastings district.

“Downers have been working hard on the rebuild of the Chrystal Twin Culvert, replacing it with a new and larger culvert with Matahorua Rd rebuilt above it,” the road update read.

“This work is nearing completion and will be the first major rebuild of the cyclone recovery programme to be completed.”

Plenty of work has been done since the cyclone including building temporary bridges across the region, but the new culvert marks the first permanent rebuild of a major work in Hastings district.

Where the money comes from

Last year, the Government earmarked $260 million of funding to go toward council road repairs across the Bay, following the cyclone, most of which will go to HDC.

NZTA Waka Kotahi also supports councils by paying a percentage of local road repairs through what is known as a funding assistance rate, which is currently set at 53 per cent for Hastings district.

Despite that funding and subsidy, Hastings District Council and other councils are still facing a large shortfall to fix their roads.

HDC is proposing a 25 per cent rates increase from July to help cover compounding cyclone recovery costs, which is one of the highest rates increases in the country.

The council is nearing $400 million in debt and anticipates that will reach $700m by 2030.

Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.