$1m pricetag for new valley route

BROKEN: The Waitotara River washed away the abutment of the Limeworks bridge on Waiinu Beach Rd. PHOTO/ DAVID PEARCE

A new route into the lower end of the Waitotara Valley could cost up to $1million.

South Taranaki District Council is actively pursuing options of an alternative route after access to a meat-processing plant and beach settlement were cut after floods a fortnight ago.

The flood-swollen Waitotara River damaged abutments at the Limeworks bridge, the only access to Silver Fern Farms meat plant and the Waiinu Beach settlement a few kilometres beyond the works.

With the bridge closed, the only access has been over a temporary route through about 6km of farmland to link with Paetaia Rd and then joining State Highway 3 south of Waitotara village. It's not the first time the cross-country route has been used. It happened in 2004 and again in 2006 when the river breached its banks and cut all road access.

Brent Manning, South Taranaki District Council group manager engineering services, told the Chronicle yesterday that creating a new route could cost up to $1million, but it was an option the council was investigating.

Mr Manning said farm owner David Pearce had been "very generous" in again allowing access across his farm. "Obviously, developing a new road would provide a permanent solution."

But he said the council's immediate focus was getting Limeworks bridge re-opened and that was on track to happen in three weeks.

He said Mr Pearce had even offered to gift the land needed for the alternative road through his property, but there was "a lot to be done" before that was resolved. "There are other landowners involved so we'd need to have discussions with them as well. Another key in all of this is the involvement of the NZ Transport Agency," Mr Manning said.

NZTA manages Government funding for the state roading network as well as partial funding for local authority road works.

He said the upside of a new route meant there would be no need for a bridge across the Waitotara River to service the meat plant and the settlement at Waiinu Beach. About 40 people lived there permanently with numbers swelling during weekends and holiday periods when bach owners turned up.

Wanganui company Emmetts Civil Construction was at the bridge carrying out repairs.