Quake-hit Christchurch road to finally reopen after eight years

Sumner Rd is set to reopen at the end of March. Photo / Supplied

A quake-hit Christchurch road that has been closed for eight years is set to reopen next month.

The critical road link between Sumner and Lyttelton over the Port Hills has been closed since the magnitude-6.3 February 22, 2011 earthquake, which brought tonnes of rocks tumbling across it.

But after years of work, a Christchurch City Council team and contractors say they are on track to have Sumner Rd reopened to traffic at the end of March.

"Reinstating this road has been a massive undertaking but we are almost at the finishing line," the council's transport planning and delivery manager Lynette Ellis said.

"The final push is on to get the road surface laid, the safety barriers installed, and the line markings done. While our contractors are doing this work, there will be trucks moving through both Lyttelton and the Redcliffs-Sumner areas.

"At the Lyttelton end of the road, stonemasons are working to finish the retaining walls. The walls are being built from rocks that were salvaged from Sumner Rd as part of the rockfall risk-reduction work."

The work on Sumner Rd is being jointly funded by the city council and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA).

"Getting this critical transport route between the city and the Port of Lyttelton reopened is going to be a major milestone. It will make moving over-dimension freight to and from the port much easier and it will mean no more dangerous goods convoys through the tunnel," Ellis said.

"It will also reconnect the communities of Lyttelton and Sumner and open up access to the Port Hills for cyclists.

"When the road does reopen, there will be changes in traffic patterns as some heavy vehicles return to moving through Redcliffs, Sumner and parts of Lyttelton for the first time since the February 2011 earthquake. We will be working with the affected communities to let them know about the changes."

Getting Sumner Road reopened has involved:
Blasting 100,000 cubic metres of rock and moving it to Gollans Bay Quarry
Building a 407-metre-long catch bench to intercept falling rocks from the Crater Rim Bluffs. The back of the bench is 18 metres high, and the 15-metre-wide floor of cushioning material is designed to trap falling rocks
Building a 50-metre-long, seven-metre-high rock interception bund
Reinstating 2.6 kilometres of road
Installing 2.6 kilometres of safety barrier
Replacing/resealing 16,700 square metres of road
Repairing/rebuilding 30 retaining walls, the biggest of which is 132 metres long and seven metres high
Planting 30,000 plants
Source: Christchurch City Council